

.£ 




/47S 



k 



I 



COMPLIMENTS OF 

DANIEL J, MORRELL 

JOHNSTOWN, PA. 



TS 300 
.5 
.P3 
1878 
Copy 1 



THE 



IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS 



AT THE 



UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION OF 1878. 



AT PARIS. 



A REPORT TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 



BY 



DANIEL J. MORRELL, 



United States Commissionee to the Univeesal Exposition of 1878. 






PRINTED BY PERMISSION OF THE SECRETARY. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

THE AMERICAN IRON AND STEEL ASSOCIATION, 

No. 265 South Fourth Steeet. 

1879. 






\ 






*\* 



PRINTED BY 

ALLEN, LANE & SCOTT, 

233 South Fifth Street, 

PHILADELPHIA. 




THE 

IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



Hon. William M. Evarts, 

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. 

Sir: — I have the honor to submit for your consideration the following 
report on the exhibits of iron and steel which were made at the Universal 
Exposition of 1878, at Paris, and upon the condition of the iron and steel 
industries of the world at the present time. In the collection of the histori- 
cal and statistical information contained in it I have had the valuable assist- 
ance of Mr. James M. Swank, the Secretary of the American Iron and Steel 
Association, and this assistance I thankfully acknowledge. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

D. J. MOEEELL, 

United States Commissioner to the Universal Exposition of 1878. 

Johnstown, Pa., February 28, 1879. 

KEPOKT. 

The Joint Resolution of Congress, approved December 15, 1877, 
in relation to the Universal Exposition of 1878, at Paris, provided 
for the appointment by the President of twenty Commissioners 
additional to the Commissioner-General, and on the 12th day of 
February, 1878, I had the honor to be appointed one of these 
Commissioners. The Exposition was opened to the public on the 
1st day of May, and was closed on the 10th day of November. 
A large portion of the intervening time I spent at Paris or in vis- 
iting such industrial centres as would afford needed information 
in the preparation of this report. By arrangement with the Com- 
missioner-General I undertook the consideration of the commercial 
and business aspects of the iron and steel industries as they were 
represented at the Exposition, and such observations as I may sub- 
mit in the following pages will be strictly in accordance with this 
understanding, leaving to others the presentation of facts and opin- 
ions affecting the purely technical and scientific aspects of these 
industries. A few preliminary remarks of a general nature will, 
however, be permitted. 

(3) 



THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARTS. 



In strong contrast with the action of our own government in re- 
gard to the Philadelphia Exhibition, the French Government, right- 
ly appreciating the benefits to be derived from inteimational dis- 
plays of industrial products, promptly resolved that the Exposition 
should be held, and assumed the expense of its creation and manage- 
ment : the people, thus encouraged and thus directed, labored with 
a patriotic pride and a concentration of effort worthy of all praise to 
secure its success. Every branch of the government and all classes 
of the people realized that the honor, the glory, and the welfare of 
France would be promoted by the Exposition, and there were there- 
fore no serious impediments placed in its way and no jealousies 
engendered to cast reproach upon the French name. The Exposi- 
tion was as completely successful as all France desired that it should 
be, and France is richer to-day, her people are more generally em- 
ployed, and her future is brighter, than if it had not been held. 

The part taken by France in supplying contributions to her own 
Exposition was such as would naturally result from the favorable 
conditions above mentioned ; it was most creditable to her resources 
and to the skill of her industrial classes. With one exception the 
part taken by every other progressive industrial nation which par- 
ticipated in the Exposition was also in the main adequate and satis- 
fying. The United States formed the exception ; neither her natural 
resources nor the mechanical skill and achievements of her people 
were adequately represented. It will be for others to state all the 
reasons for this inadequate display ; I desire merely to add my testi- 
mony in emphasizing the fact that all the nations which made ade- 
quate displays of their products at Paris commenced to prepare their 
exhibits at an early day after the holding of the Exposition was 
determined upon. France, Great Britain, Sweden,' Russia, Austria, 
Italy, Belgium, and the Australian Colonies were in the van of 
preparation ; only the United States, of all the leading industrial 
nations of the world, lagged behind. Our display, although with 
few exceptions excellent in quality, was not sufficient in extent, 
and not therefore fully representative of our varied resources. It 
would seem to be demonstrated by our incomplete exhibits at Vien- 
na and Paris that we have not yet fully awakened to the im- 
portance of international industrial exhibitions ; if the American 
people were more thoroughly in earnest in this matter the govern- 
ment would also be. If we would widen the area for the con- 
sumption of our agricultural and manufactured products, and if we 
would increase our commerce, we must not sit with folded hands 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 



and wait for customers to come to us, but swiftly as opportunity- 
offers go in search of them. May we not learn wisdom in this 
matter from that mother country which has taught us so much 
already? At all the international exhibitions that have yet been 
held the products of British workshops were well represented, and 
upon each occasion were second only to the exhibits of the country 
which had invited their competition. 

Approaching the subject of the iron and steel exhibits at Paris, it 
is proper at the beginning to say that so complicated and expensive 
are the modern processes for converting iron ore into partially or 
wholly finished products that they are practically excluded from 
all international exhibitions; while, even if exhibited, they could 
not, for obvious reasons, be shown in operation. Other manufac- 
turing processes, notably such as relate to the production of textile 
fabrics, were freely displayed at Paris. Of the machinery connect- 
ed with the manufacture of iron and steel, and the designs and mod- 
els of such machinery, there was comparatively little on exhibition 
to suggest that marvelous mechanical and scientific progress which 
is well known to characterize to-day the industrial development of 
all iron-making countries. More perhaps than any other great 
industry, that which embraces the manufacture of iron and steel 
was represented at Paris by its fruits rather than by its methods. 
But how numerous, and varied, and wonderful were these fruits ! 
Of machinery used in other manufacturing industries, and made 
mainly or wholly of iron and steel, the display was in an eco- 
nomic sense the most imposing feature of the Exposition. Indeed, 
the presence of labor-saving machinery and its products was the 
great industrial base, and pillar, and crown of the Exposition, as it 
had been of other recent international exhibitions. 

It may here be remarked that, on the Continent of Europe, and 
to a certain extent in Great Britain, the manufacture of heavy 
machinery, railway rolling stock, steam engines, military material, 
etc., is more generally conducted in connection with the manufac- 
ture of iron and steel than in this country. » Locomotives, railway 
cars, and ordnance, for instance, are not manufactured by a single 
establishment in the United States which makes iron and steel, but 
in Europe the combination of industries indicated is frequently met. 
Whether the economical results are satisfactory, or not, is simply 
a question of administration ; but the fact is to be noted that the 
European system of consolidating industries has scarcely an exist- 
ence in the United States. The genius of our institutions, the varied 



THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



resources of our country, and its vast extent are influences which 
encourage individual enterprise and a separation of industries. 

COUNTRIES WHICH PRODUCE THE MOST IRON AND STEEL. 

The leading iron and steel producing countries of the world are 
as follows in the order of their prominence : (1) Great Britain, (2) 
United States, (3) Germany, (4) France, (5) Belgium, (6) Austria 
and Hungary, (7) Russia, (8) Sweden. These countries produce 
more than ninety-eight and a half per cent, of the world's annual 
increase of iron and steel. All were represented at the Paris Expo- 
sition, except Germany. All other countries unitedly produce less 
than one and a half per cent, of the annual increase. The iron 
resources of most of these countries were, however, represented at 
Paris. The following table of the total annual production of pig 
iron and castings from furnaces and of steel is compiled from the 
latest statistical data accessible. The tons used are English tons of 
2,240 pounds. 





Cast and Pig Iron. 


Steel. 


COUNTRY. 


Year. 


Production. 

Tons 
of 2,240 lbs. 


Percent. 

of 

Total. 


Year. 


Production. 

Tons 
of 2,240 lbs. 


Per cent. 

of 

Total. 




1878 
1878 

1876 
1878 
1876 
1876 
1875 
1876 
1877 


6,300,000 
2,301,215 

1,816,672 
1,417,073 
562,086 
443,689 
420,035 
346,955 
200,000 


45.63 
16.67 

13.16 
10.26 
4.07 
3.21 
3.04 
2.51 
1.45 


1878 

1878 

1876 

1878 
1877 
1876 
1875 
1876 
1877 


1,100,000 
735,000 

384,159 

281,801 

100,000 

113,152 

12,720 

23,592 

20,000 


39.70 


United States 


26.53 


Germany, including Grand 

Duchy of Luxemburg 

France 


13.87 
10.17 


Belgium 


3.61 


Austria and Hungary 


4.08 


Russia 


.46 


Sweden 


.86 


Other Countries 


.72 






Total 




13,807,725 


100.00 




2,770,524 


100.00 







FRANCE. 



By far the finest exhibit of iron and steel and their products 
ever made by France was made at her own Exposition in 1878. 
Her exhibit of iron and steel proper was also greatly superior in 
size and variety to that made at the same or at any previous inter- 
national exhibition by any other country. It excited the aston- 
ishment and elicited the admiration of all who thoughtfully exam- 



FRANCE. 



ined it, for few who looked upon it had before realized how largely 
French skill and enterprise had been enlisted in the manufacture of 
the more finished forms of iron and steel. In the manufacture of 
crude iron, castings, bar iron, iron and steel rails, and some other 
heavy products, the world had known at least since the Paris 
Exposition of 1867 that France was largely engaged, and that in 
their skillful and economical production she was not behind any 
other nation; but at the Exposition of 1878 she showed that in the 
manufacture of the most advanced forms of iron and steel and many 
of the products derived from them she had been enterprising and 
successful beyond all expectation. At Vienna in 1873 and at Phila- 
delphia in 1876 France made a very poor display of her iron and 
steel resources and capabilities. For this the destructive war from 
which she had but recently emerged was doubtless the principal 
cause. But in 1878 she came grandly into line with other iron 
and steel producing nations of the first rank, her steel exhibit being 
especially noticeable and surprising. 

Of the various exhibits made by the iron and steel makers of 
France, that of Schneider & Company, of Creusot, was the most 
conspicuous and the most complete. It was closely followed by the 
exhibit of the Terre Noire Company, and it in turn by the exhibit 
of the Saint Chamond Company. Each of these exhibits was dis- 
played in a pavilion erected in the immediate vicinity of the main 
Exposition building, that of Schneider & Company being the largest 
special building attached to the Exposition. 

In the Creusot exhibit the object which first attracted the visitor's 
attention, at the entrance to the pavilion, was the wooden model of 
the immense 80-ton steam hammer, finished at Creusot in 1877. 
This hammer is the largest in the world, and is said to possess 
more than three times the power of the celebrated 50-ton Krupp 
hammer at Essen. A hundred-ton forging may be turned with ease 
upon its anvil by means of its four powerful cranes. The large sum 
of $500,000 is said to have been the cost of this hammer and its 
accessories and of the building erected for it at Creusot. Scarcely 
less wonderful as a metallurgical monster was the Siemens-Martin 
steel ingot, cast by the same company in April, 1878, and weighing 
120 metrical tons, a wooden model of which was placed on ex- 
hibition. By the side of this ingot stood another wonder — a massive 
armor plate, 13 feet 10 inches long, 8 feet 6 inches wide, 2 feet 7 
inches thick, and weighing 65 metric tons. This plate was intend- 
ed for a ship's turret. Somewhat in the same line as the objects 



8 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



above noticed was a marine engine of 2,640 horse-power, with three 
upright cylinders, one of 5.49 feet and each of the others of 6.10 
feet in diameter. Eight boilers were provided to supply the steam. 
The weight of the engine was 290 metric tons, and that of engine 
and boilers was 480 tons. There was also exhibited an exception- 
ally large cast steel shaft for a screw propeller, for a French naval 
vessel. This forging was 60 feet 4 inches long and 17 inches in 
diameter, and weighed 44,651 pounds, or about 20 tons. There 
were many other exhibits in the Creusot pavilion which indicated 
great facility in the manufacture of heavy machinery and warlike 
material for use on land or sea. There were also locomotives ; iron 
and steel rails, plates, sheets, and wire ; steel tires, iron bars, angles, 
and beams ; and many other iron and steel products — all of good 
quality. A model of a modified Danks puddling machine was also 
exhibited, with various products. This modification overcomes dif- 
ficulties in machine puddling heretofore experienced in England 
and the United States, and it practically dephosphorizes the iron 
worked in it. It represents a step forward. Two of these machines 
are regularly at work at Creusot, giving good results, each of them 
producing 20 tons in 24 hours. A circular steel plate, about 90 
inches in diameter, attracted attention. Models and drawings of 
bridges, engines, mines, workingmen's houses, etc., and of the town 
of Creusot itself, were liberally distributed throughout the build- 
ing ; as were also samples of the ores, coal, and refractory mate- 
rials in use at Creusot. The whole display was most imposing, 
and was the finest single exhibit of iron and steel ever made at 
an international exhibition. 

The works of Schneider & Company are mainly situated at Creu- 
sot, in the department of the Saone and Loire, where a Bessemer 
plant of 6 eight-ton converters, a Siemens-Martin plant, (both com- 
menced in 1869,) blast furnaces, plate mills, gun factory, mines, 
etc., are located ; but their locomotive, boiler, bridge-building, ship- 
building, and marine works are situated at the neighboring town of 
Chalons, on the river Saone. There are also coal and ore mines, 
brick works, etc., elsewhere. The ground occupied by the furnaces, 
rolling mills, steel works, constructing shops, and other buildings 
used by the company at Creusot and Chalons covers 60 acres ; and 
the total area occupied by the works, dwellings of workmen, and 
railroads at the works is 1,058 acres. The number of miles of rail- 
road operated is 188, upon which 27 locomotives and 1,518 cars 
are used. In all departments of the company's works there are 



FRANCE. 



in use 281 engines other than locomotives, 58 steam hammers, and 
1,050 steam machine tools. In the last fiscal year there were pro- 
duced 549,000 metric tons of coal, 155,000 tons of pig iron, 126,- 
000 tons of wrought iron and steel ; and 25,000 tons of iron and 
steel products in the constructing shops. In the same year 400,000 
tons of iron ore were consumed in 13 blast furnaces. These fur- 
naces are from 72 to 82 feet high, and are supplied with Whitwell 
and Cowper fire brick stoves and with immense blowing engines. 
All the Bessemer iron is run direct from the blast furnaces to the 
converters. In recent years the average annual production of steel 
rails has been 50,000 tons ; of iron rails, 20,000 tons ; and of loco- 
motives, 100. The total sales of the company amounted to $15,- 
000,000 in the fiscal year 1874-5, and to $11,600,000 in the fiscal 
year 1877-8. During the past ten years the aggregate sales have 
amounted to $105,000,000. The company employs 15,000 persons. 
Its nominal capital is 27,000,000 francs, or $5,211,000. The works 
at Creusot were founded in 1781, but they did not begin to assume 
any of their present importance until 1836, when they passed 
into the hands of Messrs. Schneider Brothers & Company. 

The Terre Noire exhibit, although not so large as that of Creusot, 
was more consecutive and instructive, in showing grades of steel 
and the results of using metalloids. It comprised an interesting 
and very full collection of ores, coal, pig iron, ferro-manganese, 
and spiegeleisen ; bent and fractured bars ; polished bars and rails ; 
hammered, rolled, and fractured samples of various kinds of steel; 
cast iron pipes of various diameters ; beams, some of which were 68 
feet long ; galvanized iron ; chains ; locomotive axles ; steel ingots ; 
solid steel castings, etc. The bent and fractured specimens of iron 
and steel showed the quality of these metals to be excellent. There 
was also exhibited a model in wood of the immense blowing engine 
of the Bessemer plant of the company at Besseges, and a fine draw- 
ing of the large blowing engine of the blast furnaces at Tamaris ; 
also models, drawings, and photographs of much other machinery, 
including photographs of the large plate train, just completed, which 
will roll a plate 36.08 feet long, 8.2 feet wide, and 3.9 inches thick. 
But the feature of the Terre Noire exhibit which attracted most 
attention was the display of solid steel castings, made by a process 
peculiar to Terre Noire, but a modification of the ordinary Siemens- 
Martin process. Cannon and projectiles are the principal articles 
made by this process, which produces a true steel free from blow- 
holes. The process has been briefly described to consist in the use 



10 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



of a silicide of manganese and iron, the silicon preventing blow- 
holes by decomposing the oxide of carbon which is in solution and 
tends to escape during solidification, while the manganese reduces 
the remaining silica and the oxide of iron and prevents a further 
production of gases by the reaction of the oxide on the carbon. 
About 200 tons of castings are produced monthly by this process. 

The works of the Terre Noire Company are greatly scattered, the 
principal branch, however, being at Terre Noire, in the depart- 
ment of the Saone and Loire. The extensive operations of the pres- 
ent company had their origin in the purchase of the iron mine of 
La Voulte, in 1810. In 1862 the erection of a Bessemer plant was 
commenced at Terre Noire, and in 1868 a Siemens-Martin plant was 
established at the same place. A Bessemer and a Siemens-Martin 
plant were established at Besseges in 1868. The company owns 
19 blast furnaces and all the usual appliances of an advanced and 
comprehensive iron and steel establishment. It has 15 Siemens- 
Martin furnaces, 8 Bessemer converters, 84 puddling and 55 re- 
heating furnaces, 12 steam hammers, and 28 roll trains for iron and 
steel. Its buildings cover 28 acres ; it operates with 10 locomotives 
76 miles of railroad connected with its various works; and it employs 
7,881 persons. Two of the Siemens-Martin furnaces have a nominal 
capacity of 15 tons each, and have made heats of 22 tons each. 

In the Bessemer practice of the Terre Noire Company spiegelei- 
sen is melted in a Ponsard furnace, which requires 25 pounds of coal 
to melt 100 pounds of metal. One furnace serves four converters, 
but the latter, which are on the ground floor, are small and con- 
vert only four tons at a heat. At Terre Noire the metal is charg- 
ed direct from the blast furnace into the Bessemer converter. At 
some of the blast furnaces of the company Siemens-Cowper stoves 
are used. The company is noted for its production in commercial 
quantities of high grade ferro-manganese in the blast furnace. The 
highest it has made contains 85 per cent, of manganese, 6.7 per 
cent, of carbon, and 8 per cent, of iron. Ferro-manganese of from 
71 to 75 per cent, of manganese is made from ores of 36 to 40 per 
cent, of manganese, and with about 2.75 tons of coke to the ton of 
product, the blast being about 715° C. An average daily produc- 
tion of 11 to 12 tons is obtained in a furnace which would produce 
42 tons of Bessemer pig iron in the same time. Ferro-silicium is 
also manufactured at Terre Noire in the blast furnace, the composi- 
tion of two samples being as follows : (1) iron, 68.50 ; manganese, 
20 ; carbon, 1.50 ; silicium, 10. (2) Iron, 76.77 ; manganese, 14 ; 



FRANCE. 11 



carbon, 1.60; silicium, 7.50. The Siemens-Martin plant at Terre 
Noire is very complete and elaborate. The cost at these works of 
a metric ton of Siemens-Martin steel, made by the " pig and scrap " 
process, is given as follows : materials used in the charge, $21.80 ; 
coal, $1.94; labor, $4.10; total, $27.84. In 1877 the Terre Noire 
Company produced 106,000 metric tons of coal, 200,000 tons of 
iron ore, 158,000 tons of pig iron and spiegeleisen, and 147,600 
tons of cast and wrought iron and steel. 

The pavilion occupied by the enterprising company of iron and 
steel manufacturers at Saint Chamond, also in the department of 
the Saone and Loire, was well filled with specimens of cannon and 
projectiles ; railroad material and marine appliances ; iron and steel 
beams, bars, plates, and sheets ; steel tires and springs ; pig iron, 
spiegeleisen, iron ores, etc. The company makes a specialty of rail- 
road and marine work. Several locomotives and cars and a large 
collection of polished and fractured iron and steel rails were exhib- 
ited; also car wheels of wrought iron with steel tires. Of the 
marine articles on exhibition several armor plates of great thick- 
ness were most conspicuous. Some of these were rolled much 
thicker at one edge than at the other, the thinner part to go under 
the water. The fragment of an iron armor plate thus rolled was 
shown, one edge of which was 14 inches thick and the other 9 
inches ; several indentations showed that, notwithstanding its thick- 
ness, it had been almost perforated by projectiles hurled against it. 
A model of the rolls by which these plates were produced was ex- 
hibited. The display of steel cannon and cast steel cannon balls 
was large, the tube of one cannon weighing almost 7 metric tons. 
A cast steel ingot, weighing 40 metric tons; a steel crank axle 
weighing 31 tons ; a ship's keel of wrought iron, 49 feet long, and 
weighing 5,170 pounds ; and several large cast steel plates, for 
various purposes, were especially noticeable. Cast steel beams; 
steel discs for circular saws ; thin sheets of crucible steel ; bent, 
twisted, and fractured bars of iron and steel, and many other speci- 
mens completed a very interesting collection of iron and steel prod- 
ucts. Of the models shown there was one of a twenty-ton Pernot 
furnace in use at the works. The steel made at Saint Chamond is 
made in Siemens-Martin-Pernot furnaces. Iron is also puddled in 
Pernot furnaces. The works produce beams, springs, tires, cannon, 
rails, armor and other plates, and merchant iron and steel. Steel 
beams are a specialty, and are made up to two feet in width by a 
peculiar universal train. 



12 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



The company which operates the extensive works at Saint dia- 
mond has a capital of $2,600,000 ; employs from 5,000 to 6,000 
workmen; and manufactures from 40,000 to 45,000 tons of iron 
and steel annually. Its works proper are in five divisions, and in 
addition it has seven blast furnaces — four cold blast charcoal in 
Corsica and three hot blast coke near Saint Chamond. 

In the main building of the Exposition and in the annexes there 
were exhibited the products of many other iron and steel establish- 
ments of France, a majority of all these establishments in the coun- 
try being represented. Specimens of pig iron and iron ores from all 
parts of France and adjacent sources of supply were shown. One 
of the largest armor plates at the Exposition was exhibited by Mar- 
rel Brothers ; it was 13.94 feet long, 5.24 feet wide, 2.34 feet thick, 
and weighed 38 metric tons. It was made of puddled iron. The 
Marseilles Company exhibited specimens of spiegeleisen and ferro- 
manganese from its Saint Louis blast furnaces, and also exhib- 
ited ores from Italy, Spain, and Algeria. The Denain and Anzin 
Company presented a very imposing column of iron and steel rails 
and other iron and steel products, including iron made in a revolving 
puddling furnace of the Crampton pattern. The Champagne Com- 
pany exhibited a large collection of iron ores, and of pig iron made 
with both charcoal and coke. Jacob Holtzer & Company exhibited 
chrome pig iron and steel, the latter showing a very fine fracture. 
This firm also exhibited a very large and complete assortment of 
steel bars of all sizes, as well as steel castings, tools, cannon, and raw 
materials. The Company de l'Horme showed samples of wrought 
iron tempered in sulphuric acid to increase its tensile strength. The 
Coal Company of Anzin, the largest mining company in France, 
exhibited a fine model of its mines, at which are employed about 
15,000 persons. This company owns about 70,000 acres of land, 
and produces about 2,000,000 tons of coal annually. 

The display made by France of steam engines and locomotives 
was the largest in the Exposition, and showed to great advantage. 
Many of the engines were in motion, and in ease of movement, 
smoothness of finish, and adaptation to the uses to which they were 
applied they compared favorably with the best engines in use in the 
United States. I was especially pleased to see two Corliss engines 
of French manufacture in operation, each of about 50 horse-power. 
The largest engine in the Exposition building was a French en- 
gine of 700 horse-power. The display of pumping machinery was 
large, as was also that of machinery for the manufacture of beet 



FRANCE. 13 



sugar, which machinery we have not yet had occasion to make in 
our own country. In mining machinery the French department 
was rich, and it was apparent that in the working of coal mines 
especially the French had made great progress and have probably 
no superiors. Of agricultural machinery the French display was 
exceedingly creditable. Although Great Britain and the United 
States each surpass France in this field of invention, it must be 
conceded that she is rapidly adopting their best conceptions, and a 
field trial of competing agricultural machinery during the summer, 
which I witnessed, fully attested this fact. France, indeed, mani- 
fests wonderful progress in the quickness with which she perceives 
and the readiness with which she accepts foreign mechanical ideas. 
Long ago Nasmyth, the English inventor of the steam hammer, 
found that Frenchmen could perceive its great advantages and pos- 
sibilities when his own countrymen could not. Neilson's hot-blast, 
invented in Scotland in 1828, was used in France in 1832 ; the 
manufacture of Bessemer steel, invented in England in 1857, was 
introduced into France in 1859 at Sireuil. The Whitwell stoves are 
in more general use in France than in England. The most recent 
exhibition of this progressive mechanical spirit is, perhaps, shown 
in the introduction upon at least two French railroads of the West- 
inghouse air brake, an American invention. In the substitution of 
steel for iron, now rapidly taking place in many countries, France 
is not behind any of her cotemporaries. 

The French display of machine tools, wood-working machinery 
textile machinery, gas and water pipe, general castings, cooking- 
ranges, saws, and edge tools, and fine cutlery was in the main praise- 
worthy, and in some respects unsurpassed in quality, as it was 
unequaled in extent and variety. English exhibitors of competing 
articles frankly admitted the excellence of these exhibits, and with 
regard to some of them they also admitted that France would here- 
after fully supply her own markets, and in part supply the markets 
of her Continental neighbors. 

A pamphlet lies before me which contains a list of several hun- 
dred blast furnaces and iron and steel rolling mills in France. It 
is noticeable that more than one-half of the rolling mills are con- 
nected with blast furnaces; and it is also worthy of remark that the 
iron and steel industries of France are widely distributed, showing 
an equally wide distribution of the raw materials of manufacture and 
great facility in procuring those of neighboring countries. Her own 
large supply of native ores is supplemented by the abundant supply 



14 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



of foreign ores of extraordinary richness which are found near at 
hand in Elba, Spain, and Algeria ; while Belgium and Germany may 
be drawn upon for ores of comparatively inferior quality. The 
substitution of Bessemer steel for iron has largely decreased the 
mining of native ores in France, and increased the use of Spanish 
and Mediterranean ores. In 1877 the production of the former was 
about 2,000,000 tons, and the importation of the latter was 975,631 
tons. In 1878 the importation was 932,284 tons. France export- 
ed 79,113 tons of ore in 1877, and 79,536 tons in 1878. 

The annual production of coal in France is about 17,000,000 tons, 
the annual consumption about 23,000,000 tons, and the annual ex- 
portation to neighboring countries about 800,000 tons, leaving about 
7,000,000 tons to be imported. This deficiency is supplied partly 
from Belgium, and partly from England and Westphalia. In 1876 
Belgium furnished 50 per cent, of the whole importation, England 
36 per cent., and Westphalia 14 per cent. About 700,000 tons of 
artificial fuel, or briquets, are annually manufactured in France 
from the refuse of coal mines. The production of coal in France 
has doubled since 1860. The coal measures are principally found 
in the departments of Pas-de-Calais, Nord, Loire, and Saone-et- 
Loire. 

The production of pig or cast iron in France amounted to 112,- 
500 metric tons in 1819, to 266,361 tons in 1830, to 347,773 tons 
in 1840, to 415,653 tons in 1850, to 898,353 tons in 1860, and to 
1,260,348 tons in 1866. During the years 1874 to 1877 the pro- 
duction was annually about 1,400,000 tons. The exact figures for 
1878 are not authoritatively published, but the approximate pro- 
duction for the year has been placed at 1,417,073 tons, showing 
a slight increase. In 1861 there were 472 blast furnaces in France, 
of which 282 used charcoal, 113 coke, and 77 mixed charcoal and 
coke. In 1872 the total number of furnaces had decreased to 270, 
although the production of the year was much greater than that of 
1861, the substitution of coke for charcoal and the use of larger and 
better furnaces accounting for the decrease in the whole number. 
Of the 270 furnaces in 1872, only 89 used charcoal, and 46 a mixed 
fuel ; the remaining 135 used coke. The annual production of char- 
coal pig iron is now less than 100,000 tons. It is still customary in 
some parts of France to make rough castings direct from the blast 
furnace, (classed as pig in the above statistics,) and in the Pyrenees 
iron is still made by primitive processes. 

The manufacture of iron rails in France began about 1840, and 



GREAT BRITAIN. 15 



in 1850 the production was only 23,087 metric tons. In 1860 it 
was 121,348 tons, and in 1869 it was 216,628 tons. In 1872 it 
had fallen to 129,151 tons; in 1875 to 118,959 tons; in 1876 to 77,- 
420 tons ; in 1877 to 73,103 tons ; and in 1878 to 53,884 tons. 

The production of merchant iron (not including plates and sheets) 
amounted to 149,652 metric tons in 1850, and to 710,935 tons in 
1872. Since 1872 this production, like that of iron rails, has de- 
creased, the make in 1877 being 589,559 tons, and in 1878 being 
608,764 tons. The production of plates and sheets amounted to 
100,915 metric tons in 1865, and to 129,843 tons in 1872. The 
make in 1877 was 107,451 tons, and in 1878 it was 105,688 tons. 

The decrease in the production of iron rails and merchant iron 
and the stationary production of iron plates and sheets are results 
almost wholly due to the rapid increase in the manufacture of steel. 
In 1831 there were only 4,915 metric tons of steel of all kinds made 
in all France; in 1840 the production was only 8,263 tons; in 
1850 it had reached to only 10,982 tons ; but in 1860 it jumped to 
29,849 tons; in 1872 it was 141,705 tons; and in 1878 it was 
281,801 tons, of which 253,536 tons were made by the Bessemer 
and Siemens-Martin processes, and the remainder by various older 
processes. The manufacture of crucible cast steel in France does 
not appear to have ever much exceeded 8,000 metric tons annually, 
the production in 1870 being 8,135 tons, and in 1872 being 8,080 
tons. Of the reported production of 253,536 tons of Bessemer and 
Siemens-Martin steel in 1878, the quantity rolled into rails is placed 
at 211,519 tons. In 1876 there were in France 26 Bessemer con- 
verters and 25 Siemens- Martin furnaces. 

The imports of pig iron into France amounted to 212,897 metric 
tons in 1877, and to 166,487 tons in 1878 ; of iron in other forms 
to 62,736 tons in 1877, and to 69,965 tons in 1878 ; and of steel 
to 5,009 tons in 1877, and to 6,173 tons in 1878. Against this im- 
portation France exported 169,205 tons of her iron and steel prod- 
ucts in 1877, and 168,704 tons in 1878. France had 13,220 
miles of railroad in June, 1878. 

In view of the present magnificent development of the iron and 
steel industries of France, the conclusion is fully warranted that 
these industries have before them a most promising future. 

GREAT BRITAIN. 

The exhibit at Paris by Great Britain of iron and steel and their 
products has been freely characterized by representative Englishmen, 



16 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



and by representative English journals, as incomplete and unsatis- 
factory — not worthy of the vast mineral resources and still vaster 
metallurgical progress of their country. Taken in detail, the dis- 
play of these articles may have justified this criticism ; but as a 
whole it was extensive, varied, and exceedingly suggestive of me- 
chanical excellence. No other nation except France made so im- 
posing a display of steel, of cutlery, of armor plates, of stationary 
and other engines, of steam pumps, and of machine tools ; while its 
display of agricultural implements and machinery, of textile ma- 
chinery, and of general hardware was the finest in the Exposition. 
Its entire display of machinery and tools was more than creditable — 
it was magnificent ; and yet it must be confessed that, omitting this 
feature, and omitting also the splendid show of hardware and 
cutlery, the exhibit of iron and steel and their products by the 
leading nation of the world engaged in their manufacture was not 
such as she could have made nor such as was due to her reputation. 
Especially was there noticeable the absence of a large assortment of 
the products of the Bessemer and open-hearth processes, in the in- 
vention and perfection of which processes Great Britain is entitled 
to the highest honors. Such products as were exhibited were chiefly 
Bessemer rails and Siemens-Martin plates, and the absence of others 
would seem to warrant the conclusion that on the Continent and in 
the United States the tendency to adapt Bessemer and open-hearth 
steel to the manufacture of articles for which other steel and iron 
have heretofore been required is stronger than in Great Britain. 
This view would, however, be erroneous. Great Britain failed to 
make a complete display of the capabilities of Bessemer and open- 
hearth steel, but she has not, therefore, confessed that she has failed 
to observe and to utilize them. On the contrary, there is abundant 
evidence, to be noted farther on in this report, that she is abreast 
of other nations in adapting Bessemer and open-hearth steel to mis- 
cellaneous uses. 

Of the display of Bessemer steel in the British section the promi- 
nent firm of Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., of Middlesbrough, contribu- 
ted finished products in various forms, but principally rails from 
their steel works at Eston, which were established in 1877, have 
four eight-ton converters, and can produce 2,000 tons of rails 
weekly. They also contributed complete samples of the raw ma- 
terials used at their works, the ore coming from the West Coast of 
England and from Bilbao in Spain. The well-known firm of 
Brown, Bayley & Dixon, of Sheffield, made a fine display of Bes- 



GREAT BRITAIN. 17 



semer rails, tires, axles, plates, bars, etc. They exhibited a rail 130 
feet long, rolled direct from the ingot, and bent into four lengths of 
32 feet each, the whole measuring 4§ feet across. Among the tires 
exhibited by this firm were two of 9 feet in diameter, one polished 
and the other unpolished. Their locomotive springs were very fine, 
as were their large and small chains. The celebrated steel-making 
firms of John Brown & Co., and Charles Cammell & Co., of Shef- 
field, also exhibited samples of their Bessemer rails, axles, etc. Steel 
armor plates formed an impressive feature of their exhibits. A Bes- 
semer steel boiler plate, of superb quality, which had been subjected 
to a test of the utmost severity, was exhibited by the West Cum- 
berland Iron and Steel Company. Of Siemens steel, made by the 
" ore " process, the only noticeable display was made by the Lan- 
dore Company, of which Dr. Siemens himself is the head. The 
exhibit of this company, in an annex to the main building, em- 
braced specimens of rolled and forged steel in various minor forms ; 
also heavy ship plates of the same material ; also rails, angles, 
beams, tires, and axles. The exhibit was scarcely such in location, 
style, and variety of samples as might have been expected from this 
company. 

One of the most interesting of the British steel exhibits was that 
which embraced various samples of the " Whitworth metal," to 
which much importance has been attached in Great Britain in con- 
nection with the manufacture of ordnance and other articles by the 
Siemens and Siemens-Martin processes. The exhibit was large, and 
of a character to favorably impress the visitor. The metal is made 
of more than ordinary solidity and tenacity by being cast under 
hydraulic pressure. Cannon and shells of this metal are said to 
withstand the severest tests, a claim that received confirmation from 
some of the samples submitted. A propeller shaft was exhibited, 
forged hollow, which it was claimed was much stronger than a solid 
wrought iron shaft of the same size and weighing one-half more. 
This shaft, forged from a hoop of compressed steel, was 33 feet 7 
inches long, the outside diameter 17J inches, and the diameter of 
the bore 111 inches. A hydraulic cylinder of this metal was 
shown which was represented to stand a pressure of four tons to 
the square inch. For machine tools, in which strength combined 
with lightness is desirable, the compressed steel is claimed to have 
no equal. Sir Joseph Whitworth's aim has been to produce a steel 
that would be free from blow-holes, and this result he has accom- 
plished by mechanical means. It has already been stated in this 



18 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



report that a similar result has been claimed by the Terre Noire 
Company, in France, through chemical combinations. 

Hadfield's Steel Foundry Company, of Sheffield, exhibited cruci- 
ble steel castings in various forms, principally, however, as railroad 
appliances, including very light wheels for street railroads. The 
wearing qualities of these wheels are doubtless excellent, but they 
are hardly superior in this respect to American chilled cast iron 
wheels, while they are much more expensive. Their extreme light- 
ness, however, is a recommendation, although it may be doubted 
whether they are much, if any, lighter than the best cast iron wheels 
on American street railroads. Steel wheels of various sizes, from 
colliery sheaves to car wheels, made from Attwood's steel, at the 
Stanner's Close's Steel Works at Wolsingham, were also exhibited, 
as were other steel castings and steel forgings from the same works. 

The exhibit made by the cast steel makers of Sheffield was not 
large, but it was interesting and valuable. Tool steel was shown in 
great variety by Guy & Company ; Jowitt & Sons showed circular 
saws, with perforated teeth ; one of the saws was 7 feet and 3 inches 
in diameter ; Siebohm & Dieckstahl exhibited many fine steel frac- 
tures, showing their steel to be of exceptional excellence ; other 
firms showed cast steel in various forms and tools made from it. 
Andrew & Company, of the Toledo Works, showed a piece of cast 
steel wire rod, No. 2 wire gauge, 1250 feet long. Thomas Turton 
& Sons made a fine display of cast steel springs. But the most ex- 
tensive of the Sheffield cast steel exhibits was that of William Jes- 
sop & Sons, who exhibited a full assortment of their products, a 
leading feature of which was a steel disc or saw plate, 10 feet 8 
inches in diameter, re of an inch thick, and weighing 2,688 pounds. 
This firm also exhibited a block of best cast steel, 20 inches square 
and weighing 1 ton and 10 cwts. ; also other ingots of large size, 
broken and showing fine fractures ; also specimens of crucible steel 
boiler plate, bent, twisted, and punched cold. A few cast steel 
manufacturers at Newcastle-on-Tyne and elsewhere also exhibited 
their products. 

Sheffield made a good display of cutlery, saws, and edge tools, 
and this was supplemented by like contributions from other British 
manufacturing centres ; but the whole British exhibit of these arti- 
cles was inferior in extent to that of France, and in some respects 
was fully equaled by it in quality. The French saws at the Expo- 
sition were especially noticeable and excellent. 

Of iron products proper and the raw materials of their manufac- 



GREAT BRITAIN. 19 



ture the best display in the British section was made by the Cleve- 
land and North of England district. The ironmasters of this dis- 
trict showed commendable enterprise in the extent, variety, and 
neatness of their display. They exhibited the' exact quantity of 
coke, ore, and limestone used in the production of one ton of Cleve- 
land pig iron, namely, a pillar of native iron ore, 10 feet high and 
weighing 32 6 o tons, 24 cwts. of Durham coke, and 12 cwts. of 
Weardale limestone. Various samples of pig iron, castings, wrought 
iron tubes, plates, sheets, rails, girders, etc., were also shown. The 
castings exhibited by the proprietors of the Acklam Works, at Mid- 
dlesbrough, including garden chairs, umbrella stands, and similar 
light wares, were cast directly from the blast furnace, the better to 
show the quality of the Cleveland metal for foundry purposes. Mr. 
I. Lowthian Bell, M. P., exhibited samples of Cleveland iron from 
which the large percentage of phosphorus originally contained in it 
(1.2 to 1.75) had been almost entirely removed by his oxide of iron 
process. He also exhibited samples of steel made from this iron. 
Specimens were also shown by Hopkins, Gilkes & Co., of Middles- 
brough, of iron made in the Danks puddling furnace, from Cleve- 
land pig iron. They fully established the claim for excellence that 
has been made for this iron, and it was not surprising to learn that 
it is competing with the best Staffordshire brands. It possesses 
a tough fibre and great tensile strength. Siemens-Martin steel 
made from this iron was also exhibited. The Danks furnace has 
been proved to be a powerful agency in the elimination of phos- 
phorus from Cleveland pig iron, but, although successfully com- 
peting in quality and price in the manufacture of the very best 
bar iron, the proprietors can not, by its instrumentality, make iron 
rails of sufficient hardness to compete with Bessemer rails in wear- 
ing qualities. 

The Cleveland and North of England district is the most pro- 
ductive iron district in the world. It embraces less than three 
English counties — Northumberland, Durham, and the North Riding 
of Yorkshire, and yet its annual production of pig iron during the 
years 1871 to 1878, both inclusive, averaged over 2,000,000 English 
tons. In each of these years it produced more pig iron than any 
other country, the United States alone excepted, and in the years 
1875, 1876, and 1877 it produced more than the United States, the 
exact figures for 1877 being as follows: Cleveland, 2,138,378 tons; 
United States, 2,066,594 tons. In 1878 the production of Cleve- 
land declined to 2,023,177 tons, which was less than that of the 



20 THE IKON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



United States in the same year. There are 165 blast furnaces in 
this district, some of them being the largest in the world. Of these, 
92 were in blast and 73 were out of blast in December, 1878. In 
1840 the number of blast furnaces was less than a dozen, and they 
were all small. The district produces about one-third of the total 
pig iron product of Great Britain. It also produces over 31,000,000 
tons of coal annually, or about 23 per cent, of the immense coal 
product of the kingdom. Until a year or two ago it was also very 
prominent in the manufacture of finished iron. Of 7,159 puddling 
furnaces in all Great Britain, 1,894 are to be found in this district. 
The extreme cheapness with which Cleveland pig iron can be made 
brings it into successful competition with the pig iron of Scotland 
and other districts of Great Britain, and with that of Belgium, Ger- 
many, and other Continental countries. The fact is to be noted, 
however, that, notwithstanding this cheapness and the rapid growth 
of the Cleveland iron district in the last ten years, the exports of 
pig iron from all Great Britain since 1873 have annually been less 
than in 1871, showing that Cleveland pig iron is merely taking the 
place in foreign markets of other British pig iron, particularly that 
of Scotland. 

The district of South Staffordshire is the great centre of the 
finished iron trade of England: It contains 125 separate and dis- 
tinct iron works, or, as we say in our country, rolling mills, having 
over 2,000 puddling furnaces out of a total of 7,159 in the whole of 
Great Britain. It also contains 148 blast furnaces out of a total of 
977 in the kingdom. Of the whole number in the district, only 38 
were in blast in December, 1878. But of the large iron interests 
packed in this small territory very little display was made at Paris. 
Several firms exhibited specimens of sheet iron, some of which were 
bent into various shapes to show their excellent quality. 

Earl Granville, of North Staffordshire, and the Lilleshall Com- 
pany, of Shropshire, showed samples of their iron ore, coal, and pig 
iron; the Snedshill Iron Company, of Shropshire, made a fine dis- 
play of boiler plates, rods, bars, etc.; the Shelton Bar Iron Com- 
pany, of North Staffordshire, showed fine samples of its rails, 
angles, tees, girders, plates, etc. ; the North Lonsdale Iron and Steel 
Company, and the firm of Harrison, Ainslie & Company, both of 
Lancashire, showed samples of their .pig iron and raw materials. 
The Leeds Forge Company, of Leeds, Yorkshire, exhibited in a 
small case samples of excellent boiler plate, folded sixteen times 
without cracking ; also shafts and locomotive axles of superior 



GREAT BRITAIN. 21 



quality. This company also exhibited Fox's patent corrugated flue 
for steam boilers, the invention of Mr. Sampson Fox, the managing 
director of the company. This flue is made from best Yorkshire 
cold blast pig iron, and the following advantages are claimed for it : 
" Increased strength against collapse ; much thinner plate than 
usual may be used, and higher pressure adopted with increased 
safety ; increased heating surface ; a more effective heating surface, 
due to flame impinging on corrugated surfaces ; more elasticity 
longitudinally compared with a plain flue ; and increased circulating 
action of the water, due to steam being formed in the annular 
grooves or corrugations." W. B. Wright & Co., of Bristol, exhibited 
specimens of their galvanized sheet iron, including a sheet 16 feet 
long, with eight 3-inch corrugations, and of 24 Birmingham wire 
gauge, claimed to be the largest sheet of the kind ever rolled. 
Other specimens of galvanized iron sheets were exhibited in the 
British section ; also tin and terne plates, galvanized and other wire, 
and a long list of minor iron and steel products. 

The iron and steel industries of Scotland and Wales were very 
meagrely represented. In Scotland there are 22 rolling mills, 345 
puddling furnaces, and 155 blast furnaces. In all Wales and Mon- 
mouthshire there are over 20 rolling mills, over 800 puddling 
furnaces, and 174 blast furnaces. The great iron shipbuilding firms 
on the Clyde, the Tyne, and the Thames made no sign. Of iron 
bridges, or the parts composing them, there was no display worthy 
of special mention. Of the excellent coal and coke of the United 
Kingdom the display was ample. 

But what Great Britain lacked in iron and steel exhibits she 
made up in all kinds of machinery. Her display of agricultural 
machinery was very large, the best she ever made, but its merits 
were stoutly contested by French and American exhibitors. Of 
mowers, reapers, threshers, cultivators, plows, and the long line of 
agricultural machines and implements now regarded as essential to 
progressive agriculture, the British section contained a large and 
excellent assortment. A prominent feature of the British agricul- 
tural machinery exhibit was the steam plow, which has not yet 
been brought into use in either France or America, except experi- 
mentally, although largely employed in England. The introduc- 
tion of this great labor-saving machine upon our Western prairies 
may be presumed to be among the possibilities of the near future, 
as may also the introduction upon American farms of another fea- 
ture of European agriculture, the beet sugar industry. In the 



22 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



British section there was a display of stationary, portable, locomo- 
tive, fire, and marine engines that was almost bewildering in its 
extent and variety. Galloway & Son, of Manchester, exhibited a 
300 horse-power engine which attracted much attention. It had 
two cylinders, one high and the other low pressure. The work- 
manship was excellent. Of steam pumps, hydraulic cranes and 
other hydraulic machinery, portable forges, steam hammers, wood- 
working machinery, and machine tools generally, the display was 
also large. Two steam cranes, exhibited by Messrs. Appleby 
Brothers, deserve special mention. The exhibit of textile machin- 
ery was magnificent and unequaled. 

It has already been remarked that in the nature of things it is 
impossible to exhibit at an international exhibition many of the 
processes of iron and steel manufacture. In the British section 
there was, therefore, but little to suggest the methods by which the 
greatest iron and steel producing country in the world has attained 
its pre-eminence. A model and drawings of the Whitwell stoves 
were exhibited by the Messrs. Whitwell. Messrs. Brown, Bayley & 
Dixon exhibited a design of Cooper's patent appliance for utilizing 
the heat from Bessemer converters, by carrying the flame through 
a stack or chimney into a stove containing a series of pipes, through 
which the blast for melting pig iron is forced. Charles Wood, 
of Middlesbrough, exhibited models of his machine for the utiliza- 
tion of blast furnace slag. Francis H. Lloyd, of Wednesbury, 
showed samples of his patent open spray tuyeres for blast furnaces. 
Professor Barff exhibited specimens of wrought iron made imper- 
vious to rust by his coating of black oxide. In exhibits of new or 
curious uses for iron and steel the patent iron railway sleeper of 
Charles Wood, and the patent elastic embossed railway sleeper of 
P. & W. MacLellan, of Glasgow, may be mentioned. The superi- 
ority of wire over hempen rope, for ship's cables and ship's rigging, 
was shown in the exhibit of a wire rope by the side of a hempen 
one of double the size, but of less strength. Railway car wheels 
with wooden and others with paper centres were shown ; the latter 
are not much in use in Great Britain, or in any part of Europe, 
but the former are extensively used on the London, Brighton, and 
South Coast Railroad. Another noticeable exhibit was that of iron 
water pipes galvanized upon the inside. 

The British display of tin and terne plates and their products 
was, as might have been expected, large and creditable. As the 
manufacture of these plates is strictly a branch of the iron industry, 



GREAT BRITAIN. 23 



and a very extensive branch of the British iron industry, the fact 
may here be noted that it has scarcely an existence in the United 
States, the second in rank among iron-producing countries. 

The adaptation of steel to shipbuilding was not shown in the 
British section by the presentation of comparative or other tests 
made by the British Admiralty or the British Lloyd's, although 
experiments on a large scale, favorable to steel, had been made by 
both these agencies prior to the opening of the Exposition. These 
experiments related to the plating of the hulls of vessels and the 
general substitution in their frame-work and interior construction 
of steel where iron is now used. As these and earlier experiments 
have already resulted in the building of two steel vessels for the 
British Government and in contracts for the building of other ves- 
sels, it is to be regretted that no record was made at Paris of the 
reasons that have prompted action which may lead to a revolution 
in the construction of both naval and merchant vessels. Nor were 
the bridge-building qualities of steel fully illustrated at Paris by 
Great Britain, although her engineers have made numerous experi- 
ments in its use for this purpose. A monograph, prepared by W. 
Parker, Esq., Chief Engineer Surveyor of Lloyd's Register, show- 
ing the use which has been made of steel for marine boilers, was 
circulated at the Exposition. 

Great Britain is making great progress in the utilization of steel 
for all purposes to which it is adapted, the preference being for Bes- 
semer and Siemens-Martin steel because of their cheapness. Steel 
boilers for stationary and locomotive engines are largely manufac- 
tured. Steel car wheels have already been mentioned. The Shef- 
field cutlers have commenced to use Bessemer steel in the manufac- 
ture of scissors and other cutlery. In some instances steel rail ends 
are used for this purpose, and in others steel of a desired quality is 
specially manufactured. In all railway appliances steel made by 
the Bessemer and the Siemens-Martin processes is rapidly displa- 
cing iron in Great Britain, as it is on the Continent. Iron, however, 
has found new friends in those inventors who have suggested its use 
in the construction of the so-called permanent way of railroads, 
and various systems of this new permanent way are now in daily 
use on the Continent. In Great Britain one or two of them have 
been used experimentally, and a commencement has been made in 
shipping iron for the construction of the permanent way of an 
Indian railroad. 

The story of Great Britain's wonderful achievements in the 



24 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



manufacture of iron and steel is best told in the statistics of their 
production ; and, in this connection, the statistics of her coal pro- 
duction should not be overlooked, for it is to the existence of her 
immense coal deposits that her prominence in the manufacture of 
iron and steel is mainly due. In 1735, one hundred and forty-four 
years ago, the total make of pig iron in Great Britain was only 
17,000 English tons. In 1854, the epoch of the Crimean war, a 
quarter of a century ago, it had steadily increased to 3,069,838 
tons, and in 1871, seventeen years after 1854, this product was more 
than doubled, the production in that year being 6,627,179 tons. In 
1872 there was an increase to 6,741,929 tons, the highest product 
yet attained. In 1877 the production was 6,608,664 tons, which 
was somewhat less than that of 1871. To fully realize the magni- 
tude of these figures, comparison of them should be made with the 
figures representing the world's total production of pig iron in 1877. 
This total production was a fraction less than 14,000,000 tons ; the 
production of pig iron by Great Britain in that year was, therefore, 
almost one-half of that total. 

But Great Britain's progress in the manufacture of steel has been 
much more rapid than the development of her pig iron industry. 
At the period of the Crimean war her annual production of all 
kinds of steel was only about 50,000 tons, but immediately after the 
close of that war the Bessemer process was invented, and in 1878 no 
less than 850,000 tons of steel were made by it alone in Great Brit- 
ain. In 1856 Dr. C. "W. Siemens and his brother Frederick invented 
the Siemens regenerative gas furnace, and in 1864 it was successfully 
applied to the production of steel by the Martin process. In 1878 
there were produced in Great Britain by the Siemens-Martin process 
and its near relative, the Siemens process, 174,000 tons of steel. 
The total production of steel in Great Britain in 1878 is supposed 
to have been 1,100,000 tons, which was nearly 40 per cent, of the 
world's production of about 2,700,000 tons in that year. 

In producing her enormous annual yield of pig iron Great Britain 
has mainly relied upon her own supplies of iron ore. In 1877 she 
mined 16,692,802 tons of ore, and imported 1,142,308 tons, princi- 
pally from Spain and Algeria, for use in her Bessemer steel works. 
In the same year she extracted 415,000 tons of "burnt ore" from 
imported cupreous pyrites, principally obtained in Spain. She thus 
smelted in 1877 a total of 18,250,110 tons of iron ore, from which 
were obtained 6,608,664 tons of pig iron. Only two districts in 
Great Britain — Northwest Lancashire and Cumberland — can supply 



GERMANY. 25 



large quantities of ores suitable for Bessemer steel. The importa- 
tion of foreign ores for Bessemer purposes is absolutely necessary. 

The production of coal in Great Britain, keeping pace with that 
of pig iron, has more than doubled since the period of the Crimean 
war. In 1854 it was 64,661,401 tons, and in 1875, twenty-one 
years afterwards, it was 131,867,105 tons. This product was in- 
creased in the following year to 134,125,166 tons, and in 1877 it 
was further increased to 134,610,763 tons. The world's production 
of coal in 1877 has been placed at about 285,000,000 tons ; so that 
Great Britain produces almost one-half of this product. It is stated 
that the largest coal field in England, with the greatest quantity of 
unworked coal, is the Midland, which extends from the town of 
Nottingham to Leeds, and is nearly 70 miles in length. 

In the building of iron steam and sailing vessels Great Britain 
undoubtedly leads all other countries combined. 

The immense quantities of iron and steel and their manufactured 
products which are annually exported from Great Britain to other 
countries will be seen in the following summary. In 1872 the max- 
imum of yearly exports of iron and steel and their manufactures 
was attained, when a total of 3,382,762 tons was exported. From 

1872 to 1876 the exportation of these products gradually declined 
in quantity to 2,224,470 tons; but in 1877 a slight increase to 
2,344,651 tons took place, which was, however, not maintained 
in 1878, when 2,299,223 tons were exported. The value of British 
iron and steel exports has steadily declined from £37,731,239 in 

1873 to £18,393,974 in 1878. 

The exportation of coal and coke from Great Britain to other 
countries gradually increased in late years until 1876, when a 
maximum exportation of 16,299,077 tons was attained. In 1877 
the quantity sent abroad fell to 15,358,828 tons. In 1860 the ex- 
ports amounted to 7,412,000 tons. This quantity was more than 
doubled in 1876. About one-third of the total British production 
of coal is used in the home iron and steel industries. 

The importation of iron and steel into Great Britain is annually 
increasing. The value of the importations in 1877 reached £1,943,- 
622. The imports of coal into Great Britain are so small as not to 
justify the quotation of exact figures. There were 17,109 miles of 
railroad in Great Britain at the beginning of 1878. 

GERMANY. 

Statistics establish the fact that Germany is entitled to a place in 



26 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



the front rank of iron and steel producing countries, but none of her 
industries were represented at the Paris Exposition, and nothing 
could therefore be learned within its gates of the characteristics and 
present condition of her iron and steel manufactures. It would not 
be proper, however, if any mention of these were entirely omitted 
from this report, and I accordingly present below such information 
concerning them as could be gleaned by personal observation and by 
reference to official or other reputable publications. 

Since the war with France and the acquisition of Alsace and Lor- 
raine, the German Empire, including for the purposes of this report 
the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, has greatly increased its annual 
production of iron and steel, the payment of the large French in- 
demnity serving to stimulate all German industries, and Alsace and 
Lorraine contributing about 20 blast furnaces and several large 
rolling mills, steel works, and foundries. But Germany had made 
great progress in the development of her iron resources prior to the 
war with France. She had shared the general activity caused by 
the ushering in of the age of steam and the age of railroads, each of 
which created a greatly increased demand for iron and its products. 
In 1830 Germany produced only about 100,000 metric tons of pig 
iron, and it was not until 1848 that this quantity was doubled, when 
205,342 tons were produced. In 1862 the production reached 524,- 
591 tons, which was more than doubled six years later, in 1868, 
when 1,200,188 tons were produced. In 1869, the year preceding 
the beginning of the war with France, the production was 1,356,965 
tons. In 1870 and 1871 it was practically stationary, but in 1872, 
after the accession of the French provinces, it jumped to 1,927,061 
tons, and in 1873 it reached a maximum of 2,174,058 tons ; adding 
castings from the blast furnace, the production in the last year was 
2,240,575 tons. The production of pig iron declined from 1873 to 
1876, in which latter year it was 1,801,457 tons ; including 44,888 
tons of castings from the blast furnace, it was 1,846,345 tons. 
These statistics show more rapid progress in the building up of 
the German iron industry than has been made in the United 
States. In 1848 the latter country produced about 800,000 English 
tons of pig iron ; and in 1873 a maximum of 2,560,962 tons 
was reached. The increase of production in the United States 
from 1848 to 1873 (from 800,000 to 2,560,962 tons) was at a ratio 
more than trebled by Germany in the same period (205,342 to 
2,240,575 tons). As Germany has usually imported more pig iron 
than she has exported, and as the accession of Alsace and Lorraine 



GERMANY. 27 



gave to her only about 230,000 tons of pig iron annually, the 
greater progress of Germany from 1848 to 1873, as compared with 
the progress of the United States, is an interesting fact, and is 
creditable to the enterprise and skill of the German people and to 
the natural resources of the empire. 

The growth of the pig iron branch of the German iron trade 
down to 1873 was fully equaled in rapidity by other branches of 
iron manufacture and by the manufacture of steel. In 1848 there 
were within the limits of the present empire 109 foundries for iron 
castings, employing 5,112 workmen, and in 1875 the number had 
increased to 874, employing 42,134 workmen. The production of 
these foundries increased from 131,929 metric tons in 1862 to 524,- 
137 tons in 1873, but declined to 436,104 tons in 1876. The quan- 
tity of steel of all kinds produced in 1848 was 9,024 metric tons ; 
in 1862 it was 40,916 tons ; in 1876, when the maximum was at- 
tained, it was 390,434 tons. The total production of the foundries, 
rolling mills, and steel works of Germany was 205,133 metric tons 
in 1848; 1,076,476 tons in 1868; 2,054,980 tons in 1874; and 
1,835,224 tons in 1876. The production of iron ore in Germany in 
1848 was 693,725 tons; in 1873 it was 6,177,576 tons; and in 1875 
it was 4,730,553 tons. 

The production of coal and lignite in Germany was 5,800,985 
metric tons in 1848, and 49,550,462 tons in 1876. The highest 
recorded production of the United States was 47,513,235 English 
tons in 1875. Of the total production of mineral fuel by Germany 
in 1876, there were 38,454,428 tons of bituminous coal and 11,096,- 
034 tons of lignite. 

The foregoing statistics show that the German iron, steel, and coal 
industries have been almost wholly developed during the past thirty 
years, and that the iron industry proper reached the culmination of 
its prosperity in 1873. Germany is to-day the third in rank among 
iron-making and steel-making nations, Great Britain and the United 
States alone outranking her, while she probably ranks next to Great 
Britain as a coal-producing country. 

A study of* the resources possessed by Germany for the manu- 
facture of iron and steel shows that they are both extensive and 
varied. Iron ore and coal are abundant, and the quality of each 
favorably compares with that of like products of Great Britain and 
France. The coal, which is easily mined, is equal tQ English and 
Welsh coal for generating steam, and the most of it yields good coke 
for the blast furnace. It is superior to that of France. The French 



28 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



people deserve great credit for producing good iron with poor coal. 
The ore is of all varieties, and no difficulty is experienced in work- 
ing it, except that which is caused by the presence of too much 
phosphorus in some varieties, rendering them unsuitable for Besse- 
mer steel. There are commercial difficulties, however, which consist 
in the general separation of the coal and ore supplies, and in the re- 
moteness of both from centres of consumption and from the sea-coast. 
The coal deposits are found mainly in Silesia and Saxony, bordering 
on Austria, and in Westphalia and Rhenish Prussia, bordering on 
Holland and Belgium. The ore mines are found in the same prov- 
inces and in others lying mainly upon the interior boundary line of 
Germany, including Bavaria, Wirtemberg, Alsace, Lorraine, and 
Luxemburg; but wherever found they are not usually associated 
with the coal deposits. Railroad and canal transportation, at greater 
or less expense, is thus rendered necessary to bring the raw materials 
together in the blast furnace, and to carry pig iron to foundries and 
rolling mills. But the location of the coal and iron ore at points 
remote from the sea- coast, and from each other, results in a still 
greater disadvantage to both the coal and iron industries of Ger- 
many, by making them, in a very large degree, the prey of foreign 
competition, water transportation for British coal and iron being 
much cheaper to German sea-ports, and to cities upon navigable 
rivers which flow into the North Sea or the Baltic Sea, than rail- 
road or canal transportation to the same markets for the products of 
German mines and iron works. For the same reason these products 
are largely debarred from foreign markets into which they would 
otherwise find a ready entrance ; and for the same reason, also, the 
cost of foreign ores for most of the Bessemer establishments of Ger- 
many, which are in the interior, is greatly increased beyond the cost 
of similar ores to British Bessemer steel manufacturers. The Ger- 
man iron trade at present labors under still another difficulty, in 
the removal, on the 1st of January, 1877, of all import duties on 
iron and steel. The government is, however, giving close attention 
to the needs of the iron and coal industries. The use of native coal 
by the German navy is encouraged ; the cheapening of inland trans- 
portation and the increase of transportation facilities are also en- 
couraged ; and the re-imposition of duties on foreign iron and steel 
is certain to be decreed at an early day. 

The number of blast furnaces in Germany in 1876 was 463, of 
which 297 were in blast and 166 were out of blast. Of the whole 
number of furnaces, 338 were in Prussia, and of these 172 were in 



GERMANY. 29 



blast. The consumption of raw materials in the production of a 
ton of pig iron in Germany ranges from 2.5 to 2.8 tons of ore, from 
2.8 to 3.2 tons of coal or coke, and from 1 to 1.5 tons of limestone. 
Many of the furnaces of Germany possess all the approved modern 
appliances, while comparatively few are wholly antiquated in style 
and naked in equipment. At Hof, in Bavaria, there are four fur- 
naces owned by one company, each of which is 57 i feet high, 19 feet 
in diameter, and supplied with four Whitwell stoves. In 1874 two 
furnaces, 61 feet high, and having jointly a daily capacity of 70 to 
80 tons, were put in blast at Mezieres-le-Metz, in Alsace. These 
furnaces were provided with all modern improvements, and have 
Cowper-Siemens hot-air stoves. Two out of four furnaces of Berge- 
Borbeck, belonging to the Phoenix Company at Laar, produced 
27,982 tons of pig iron in 1875, or a daily average of 76f tons. To 
produce this quantity of pig iron there were required 59,575 J tons 
of ore, 39,151 tons of coke, and 27,365 tons of limestone. Better 
results than these have been obtained at other furnaces in Germany, 
but the above figures I find to have been deemed worthy of promi- 
nent mention. There is observable a vast amount of enterprise 
and skill in the management of the blast furnaces of Germany. 
One of the coke furnaces of the Hoerde Iron Works was continu- 
ously in blast from July 3, 1855, to May 29, 1874, or almost nine- 
teen years. German rolling mills and steel works are also mainly 
projected on a liberal and progressive scale. Krupp's Steel Works 
at Essen, in Bhenish Prussia, are well known to be the largest in 
the world. A recent publication enumerates 16 German iron and 
steel companies, each of which had either absorbed over 4,000,000 
marks, or $1,000,000, or had been organized with a capital stock of 
this amount. One of these, the Konig and Laura Hiitte, had a 
capital of 27,000,000 marks, or $6,750,000; another, the Dortmund 
Union, 41,400,000 marks, or over $10,000,000; another, the Don- 
nersmarkhiitte, 18,000,000 marks, or $4,500,000 ; another, the Phoe- 
nix, 16,200,000 marks, or $4,000,000 ; two others, the Hoerde and 
the Bochumer Verein, had 15,000,000 marks each, or $3,750,000 ; 
and yet two others, the Preussische Company of Dusseldorf and the 
Westphalishe Union, had over 10,000,000 marks each, or over 
$2,500,000. These references show the large, not to say extrava- 
gant, scale on which many of the iron and steel works of Germany 
have been projected. 

Germany early embarked a large amount of capital in the manu- 
facture of Bessemer steel, although from the first the unwelcome 



30 



THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



fact was only too manifest that most of the ore suitable for its pro- 
duction would have to be imported, at least for some time. This 
disadvantage is now, however, not so great as formerly, domestic 
ores being mixed to a larger extent with foreign ores in the manu- 
facture of Bessemer pig. The first Bessemer steel works in Ger- 
many were built about 1865, and in 1876 there were no less than 19 
such establishments. Of these, 14 were in Prussia, 1 in Saxony, 2 
in Bavaria, and 2 in Alsace and Lorraine. These 19 establish- 
ments contained 78 converters, of which 18 were embraced in Herr 
Krupp's works at Essen. Three additional converters, or a total of 
81, were enumerated in 1877. Only 39 converters were at work in 
that year, and some of them not steadily. In apparent contradic- 
tion of the praise just bestowed on the iron and steel metallurgy of 
Germany, figures have been produced to show that the average yield 
of German converters when at work is only between one- third and 
one-fourth that of converters in the United States. This is certainly 
not a creditable showing for Germany, but it may be said in extenu- 
ation that the Bessemer practice of the United States is not equaled 
by that of any other country in the world. Even Great Britain 
falls far behind it. With 114 converters, a majority of which may 
be presumed to have been active, that country produced in 1878 
only 850,000 tons of ingots ; while the United States in the same 
year, with 22 converters, not all of which were active, produced 
exactly 653,773 English tons of ingots. Germany has made credit- 
able progress in the introduction of the Siemens regenerative fur- 
nace and the Siemens-Martin process. 

The total production of all kinds of steel in Germany has already 
been given for comparative years, the production for 1876 being 
390,434 metrical tons. The exact quantity of each kind of steel 
which entered into this total is not at hand, but the proportion of 
Bessemer steel, as well as the extent to which it is displacing iron 
in Germany, may be inferred from the following statistics of the 
production of iron and steel rails in the years 1871 to 1876. 



Year. 


Iron Rails. 


Steel Rails, 


Total. 


1871 


Metric tons. 

320,619 
320,996 
385,601 
364,978 
227,976 
126,288 


Metric tons. 

128,406 
179 092 
186,643 
237,894 
241,505 
253,746 


Metric tons. 

449,025 

500 088 


1872 


1873 


572 244 


1874 


602,872 
469 481 


1875 


1876 


380,034 





GERMANY. 31 



To illustrate the value of the accession to German iron resources 
and manufactures resulting from the acquisition of Alsace and Lor- 
raine, the following statistics relating to their largest iron-making 
establishment are given as I find them in a foreign journal. They 
relate to the works of the Messrs. De Wendel. " Their works at 
Hayange have been in the possession of the family ever since the 
year 1705. Those at Moyeuvre were started by them in 1825, while 
the works at Stiring Wendel were commenced in 1846. During the 
year 1877 these combined works produced 467,000 tons of iron ore ; 
322,000 tons of coal; 145,000 tons of pig iron; 87,000 tons of 
puddled bars; 33,500 tons of merchant bars; 8,500 tons of sheet 
iron ; 26,700 tons of rails and sleepers ; 2,000 tons of small ironwork 
for railways and mines ; 2,5.00 tons of iron wire ; 1,400 tons of 
French nails ; and 8,000 tons of general castings. It was stated that 
this production is considerably below that of the preceding year." 
The Messrs. De Wendel have in all 11 blast furnaces. At Moyeu- 
vre were rolled the first rails for the first French railway. Both pig 
aud bar iron are said to be produced by the Messrs. De Wendel at 
a lower cost than is possible at any other works on the Continent. 
Although the Messrs. De Wendel do not make steel, owing to the 
large quantity of phosphorus in their iron ores, they nevertheless 
have in use all the modern appliances for the manufacture of iron, 
including the Bicheroux and the Siemens furnaces and Lemud's 
mechanical puddlers, no iron being puddled by hand. 

The cast steel manufactory at Essen has existed since the year 
1810. It has been operated by the present owner, Alfred Krupp, 
since 1826, and since 1848 for his sole account. The number of 
workmen at the close of 1877 amounted to 8,500. The works oc- 
cupy about 1,000 acres, of which about 187 acres are under roof. 
There are in these works 1,648 furnaces; 298 steam boilers; 77 steam 
hammers, the largest of all weighing 50 tons; 18 trains of rolls; 294 
steam engines, aggregating 11,000 horse-power, one of the largest 
having 1,000 horse-power ; and 1,063 machine tools. When all ex- 
isting facilities are employed the works can produce in 24 hours 
2,700 rails, which will lay 111 English miles of track ; 350 ties ; 
150 locomotive and car axles ; 180 car wheels ; 1,000 railroad 
springs ; 1,500 grenades, etc. In one month there can be produced 
304 field guns and guns of large calibre. From 1847 to 1877 more 
than 15,000 guns were produced at these works. The daily supply 
of coal and coke required is 1,800 tons. In immediate connection 
with the cast steel works are 35 £ miles of railway ; 24 locomotives ; 



32 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



747 cars ; 80 torses ; and 37i miles of telegraph line, with 44 tele- 
graph stations. At the various mines of Herr Krupp there were 
employed 5,300 workmen in addition to those already enumerated. 
These mines embrace 4 coal mines and 562 iron ore mines, in- 
cluding ore mines near Bilbao, in Spain. At the coal mines are 
33 steam boilers and 48 steam engines, and at the iron mines are 
30 steam boilers, 23 steam engines, and 2 locomotives. Four large 
steamers, owned by Herr Krupp, each of 1,700 tons burden, besides 
leased steamers, are engaged in the transportation of Spanish ores 
to his furnaces on the Rhine. Another steamer, of 1,000 tons bur- 
den, is being constructed. The mines in Spain which are operated 
by Herr Krupp can deliver 200,000 tons of ore annually. In 
addition to the cast steel works and the ore and coal mines, Herr 
Krupp operates 14 blast furnaces, at which 700 workmen are em- 
ployed. Ten of these furnaces are of recent construction, each of 
which can produce an average daily product of 45 tons of pig iron. 
At these furnaces are 71 steam boilers and 48 steam engines. Herr 
Krupp also owns and operates at Sayner 2 small blast furnaces for 
the manufacture of spiegeleisen, and other auxiliary iron enterprises. 

The Bochum Company, at Bochum, in Westphalia, manufactures 
crucible and Bessemer steel on a large scale ; also steel castings and 
forgings, tires, axles, steel cannon, pig iron, etc. It mines its own 
coal and iron ore, and makes its own spiegeleisen. The Bessemer 
plant embraces 7 converters. Cast steel bells, made of crucible 
steel, have long formed an interesting specialty of the works of this 
company. Another specialty is the casting of steel in moulds by 
the method invented by Jacob Meier, its technical director, and 
which remained for many years the exclusive property of the com- 
pany. The process of casting steel in forms for use has been per- 
fected and largely practiced in Germany, which country may also 
be said to have given the greatest impetus to the use of cast steel 
as a substitute for iron axles and tires upon railways. Werner, at 
Carlswerk, is claimed to have been the first to make cast steel axles 
of good quality, and Krupp invented weldless cast steel tires. 

Germany has been very prominent in the substitution of iron for 
wood in the building of cars for railroads, in the construction of 
permanent way for railroads, and in the construction of public 
buildings and dwellings, telegraph poles, props for mines, etc. The 
Messrs. De Wendel are running two trains of rolls constantly on 
iron railway sleepers, and have produced many thousand tons of 
them. 



GERMANY. 33 



In the manufacture of machinery, machine tools, cutlery, edge 
tools, hardware, common and fine castings, and miscellaneous iron 
and steel products Germany showed at Vienna in 1873 that her 
people had not neglected the cultivation of the rare mechanical 
aptitudes which they are known to possess. In some specialties, as 
the manufacture of wire and scissors, German manufacturers have 
no superiors. Westphalian wire has a world-wide reputation. In 
Westphalia are also manufactured for domestic and foreign mar- 
kets large quantities of anvils, axes, agricultural implements, tools, 
chains, etc. At Berlin are some of the most extensive manufac- 
tories of machine tools, locomotives and other engines, agricultural 
machinery, and beet-sugar machinery in the world. Germany is a 
large exporter of machine tools. In the manufacture of textile 
machinery, as of textiles themselves, Germany occupies an advanced 
position, and to its perfection she has contributed many inventions 
of her own. In the building of locomotives she has achieved great 
distinction, and in the supply of neighboring Continental countries 
she has met with much success. In twelve locomotive works in 
Germany over 1,000 locomotives have been built annually. At the 
large locomotive works of Albert Borsig (recently deceased) at 
Berlin 1,031 locomotives were manufactured in the six years prior 
to April, 1873, of which 300 were sent to Russia. This large estab- 
lishment and an auxiliary establishment in Upper Silesia, under the 
same ownership, manufacture the pig iron, rolled iron, steel, boiler 
plate, axles, etc., required*' in the construction of locomotives, and 
besides supply large quantities of these articles to the German mar- 
ket. Siemens-Martin steel is largely made at the works in Upper 
Silesia. The number of workmen employed at these latter works 
in 1875 was 3,500, and the number of steam engines was 45, repre- 
senting 4,400 horse-power. The works at Berlin are of correspond- 
ing magnitude. 

M. Henri Schneider, the head of the great firm of Schneider & 
Company, at Creusot, in France, is credited with the following 
declaration before a government legislative commission, in Feb- 
ruary, 1878, concerning the German iron trade : 

There are a number of articles in which Germany competes with us with 
greater effect and is a more dangerous rival than England. The German 
makers are our chief enemies, and I attribute their formidable development to 
several causes. In the first place, their industry is based on excellent natural 
conditions. Germany possesses very considerable mineral wealth, developed 
under healthy conditions, quite independently of the speculations which of 



34 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



late years have increased the production. In certain provinces, as, for in- 
stance, Nassau, and near Siegen, there are special kinds of ore producing a 
certain quality of iron under most advantageous conditions. Germany has 
now, too, in Lorraine, the finest deposits in the world for making iron cheaply. 
I think that ordinary pig iron can be made cheaper at the present time in 
Lorraine and Luxemburg than in any place in the world. For iron ores, 
imported by German makers from Spain for their important make of steel, 
they enjoy very advantageous sea-carriage rates, and from sea-ports the for- 
warding rates into the interior are remarkably low. 

This is high praise from an industrial rival, but it is noticeable 
that English makers of iron and steel speak slightingly of "dear 
and bad" German iron made with ore and coal that are found 
at inconvenient distances, the latter alleged to be of poor quality, 
and the former largely phosphoriferous. But M. Schneider would 
hardly express his dread of German competition in French markets 
if he had nothing to be afraid of; and it is just possible that Eng- 
lish manufacturers would have a higher respect for Germany's 
ability to supply herself with good iron and steel, at fair prices to 
consumers, if she were not so good a customer for Cleveland and 
Scotch pig iron and English bars. To Germany and Holland, (the 
latter almost wholly in transit for Germany,) Great Britain an- 
nually during 1875, 1876, and 1877 exported over half a million 
tons of iron and steel. Against the revenue policy which would 
continue these large importations German ironmasters and their 
idle workingmen not unnaturally protest, and they ask that they 
shall be protected by adequate duties against the advantages pos- 
sessed by British ironmasters, namely, "the sea for their roadway, 
cheap shipping, cheap machinery, cheap coal, and the command of 
cheap capital." They allege that, if adequate protection had been 
afforded to them in late years, the excessive importations of iron 
and steel from Great Britain would not have been possible, and 
that their own industries and all other German industries would 
have measurably prospered. 

The anomaly is here presented of France dreading the appre- 
hended competition in her markets of German iron and steel, and of 
Germany protesting against the competition, already formidable and 
oppressive, of British iron and steel in German markets. We have 
here also illustrated one phase of industrial competition from which 
the United States is practically free, the contiguity or proximity 
of the territory of an industrial rival. Germany has undoubtedly 
suffered greatly from British competition, which was rendered pos- 



GERMANY. 



35 



sible by reason of the advantages stated and the repeal two years 
ago of German duties on iron and steel ; while Germany herself, by 
reason of her acquisition of the iron-making districts of Alsace and 
Lorraine, and for the other reasons assigned by M. Schneider, occu- 
pies a threatening industrial attitude toward France. It seems 
clear that, if trade between these three countries were absolutely 
free from all restrictions, the German and the French iron and steel 
industries would both be injured, and those of Great Britain only 
would be benefited. 

The following table will show the imports and exports of iron 
and steel and iron ore into and from Germany in 1876 and 1877. 



ARTICLES. 



1877. 



Imports. 



Pig iron ■. 

Scrap iron 

Steel 

Castings and common hardware 

Rails 

Bar iron 

Angle iron...., 

Plates and sheets 

Tin plate 

Iron and steel wire 

Anchors, cables, etc 

Wrought iron tubes 

Small wares 

Iron ore 



Metric tons. 

526,708 

14,225 

5,622 

49,276 

76,034 

36,423 

7,798 

18,280 

4,082 

3,181 

3,092 

4,618 

603 

328,184 



Exports. 



Metric tons. 

344,019 

19,915 

16,145 

118,443 

225,630 ■ 

85,431 

4,174 

21,208 

1,645 

31,791 

165 

5,970 

1,527 

804,037 



1876. 



Imports. 



Exports. 



Metric tons. Metric tons 



571,134 

12,520 

3,946 

35,291 

684 

9,130 

2,136 

4,748 

3,740 

2,742 

1,483 

2,410 

679 

197,537 



289,417 

16,783 

17,792 

84,109 

133,484 

51,176 

563 

11,543 

441 

15,801 

273 

1,616 

1,328 

670,882 



All of the leading articles in the table show an increase in im- 
portations in 1877 over 1876, except pig iron, and in this the decline 
was slight. Bar iron increased from 9,130 to 36,423 tons ; angle 
iron from 2,136 to 7,798 tons ; and plates and sheets from 4,748 to 
18,280 tons. The heavy imports of rails in 1877 were largely in 
transit for Russia. The large quantity of iron ore exported does 
not indicate a condition of prosperity for German ironmasters, who 
would have preferred to export it as manufactured iron. 

The imports of coal, coke, and lignite into Germany in 1877 
amounted to 4,750,943 metric tons, and the exports amounted to 
5,370,692 tons. The coal and coke imported were principally ob- 
tained from Great Britain ; the exports of coal, coke, and lignite 
were almost wholly to neighboring Continental countries. 

Germany has more miles of railroad than any other country 
except the United States, exceeding even Great Britain, amounting 
at the beginning of 1878 to 18,828 miles. 



36 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



BELGIUM. 

The iron and steel of this small but wonderfully busy country 
were well represented at the Paris Exposition, again illustrating 
the achievements of Belgian enterprise, skill, and industry in over- 
coming great natural obstacles. Belgium has an abundance of coal, 
but it now contains but little good iron ore. Owing to this scarcity 
she is largely an importer of iron ore and of pig iron. These she 
converts into manufactured iron and steel, for which she finds her 
chief market abroad. Belgium, more than any other country, sus- 
tains an iron industry that is essentially reproductive, and it sustains 
it too by selling its products to other countries, and to some of the 
countries from which she derives the raw materials of manufacture. 
Belgium is, therefore, a workshop rather than a mine ; a producer 
rather than a consumer. So long as she can manufacture iron and 
steel cheaper than other countries she will find a market for them 
in countries which have no such industries of their own, or do not 
protect those that they have. These conditions of success are not in- 
vested with the element of permanence, for countries that now take 
Belgian iron may learn to make their own iron or to protect their 
iron manufacturers who are now distanced by Belgian competition. 
But, dismissing, the future, and having regard only to the present 
situation, it must be said that the Belgian iron and steel industries 
are to-day more generally employed than those of many other iron 
and steel producing countries. Those of Wales are perhaps the 
least employed. Wales was practically absent from Paris, but 
Belgium was present in force. Not many years ago Wales regarded 
the Belgian iron industry with indifference. 

There is something amazing in the comparative prosperity of 
Belgian iron and steel industries, with their spare natural resources, 
at a time when the same industries of more favored countries are 
experiencing more or less depression. Its causes may be found in 
cheap labor, long hours, the technical education of workingmen, 
strict economy in administration, attention to the minutest details, 
and the use of the most approved labor-saving machinery. The 
population of Belgium is very dense, (5,000,000 in 12,000 square 
miles,) and the country is a hive of industry ; there is no room for 
drones. Every man has his work to do, and he must be content 
with low wages, for high wages would soon end all employment 
by destroying the ability of Belgium to compete in foreign mar- 
kets. Strikes are, therefore, exceedingly rare, but when they do 



BELGIUM. 37 



occur they soon terminate, for the government will not tolerate 
them. Personal economy is essential to existence. The labor of 
women and children is utilized. Railroads through its own terri- 
tory, favorably situated sea-ports, and a trading spirit handed down 
from the Middle Ages aid in securing foreign purchasers for Belgian 
manufactures. It is thus that Belgium maintains most of her iron 
and steel works in operation. She utilizes all her resources; she is 
industrious and frugal ; and she neglects none of her opportunities. 
Much of the distress now existing in other countries might be obvi- 
ated by the practice of the same virtues, and it would not involve 
the lowering of wages to the Belgian standard. 

As was the case at Vienna, the principal exhibit of Belgian iron 
and steel at Paris was made by the John Cockerill Society, of Se- 
raing, five miles from Liege. It comprised specimens of pig iron, 
bar iron, rails, beams, locomotive and boiler plates, tires, axles, forg- 
ings, castings, mining machinery, locomotives, car wheels and other 
railroad appliances, and various other products. A 40-ton eight- 
wheeled freight locomotive ; a 300 horse-power pumping engine ; a 
500 horse-power rolling-mill engine ; two sets of rolls, one of which 
had rolled 10,500 tons of rails; and two rails, each 180 feet long, 
one of which had been twisted cold into four spirals, were among 
the noticeable features of this most interesting exhibit, which was 
especially rich in heavy machinery. Specimens of the Bessemer 
steel manufactured by this company embraced razors, knives, swords, 
bayonets, tools of all kinds, screws, wire, plates, and bars. 

The works of the John Cockerill Society were established in 1817 
by John Cockerill, an Englishman by birth, but a Belgian citizen, 
and were at first wholly employed in the construction of steam 
engines ; but in 1823 the erection of a coke blast furnace was com- 
menced, which was blown in in 1826. It was the first on the Conti- 
nent. Until 1830 it was the only furnace of its kind in Belgium. 
Forges and a boiler shop were built in 1823 and 1824, a puddling 
mill in 1826, and a foundry in 1828. From 1830 to 1834 the works 
were closed, owing to political troubles. In 1835 the first locomo- 
tive and the first rails were made. In 1836 a second coke blast 
furnace was commenced, and in this and the following year other 
extensions were made. In 1838 John Cockerill became embarrassed, 
and in 1840 he died. In 1842 the works passed into the hands of 
the John Cockerill Society, and have since been greatly extended. 
The first Bessemer steel works in Belgium were erected by this com- 
pany in 1862. Large purchases of iron ore mines and coal lands 



38 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



and collieries have been made by it from time to time. It is a large 
owner of iron ore mines in Spain. The works now embrace 7 blast 
furnaces, with two more in course of erection ; 2 large foundries ; a 
large iron rolling mill ; a Bessemer steel plant, with 8 converters, each 
of 7 tons' capacity, a rolling mill, etc. ; a hammer mill for large 
forgings ; a shop for small forgings ; constructing shops for the 
manufacture of locomotives, marine and other engines, and other 
machinery ; boiler, bridge, and ship-iron shops, etc., etc. At Hobo- 
ken, near Antwerp, the company owns and operates an extensive 
shipyard, at which 410 steamships, transports, monitors, and armored 
vessels have been built. It owns several vessels that are engaged 
in the transportation of iron ore. Its nominal capital stock is 
$3,000,000. It now employs 8,850 workmen at all its enterprises, 
to whom it pays $2,000,000 annually as wages. Its annual sales 
amount to about $8,000,000. It has in use 252 eDgines, and its daily 
consumption of fuel is about 1,100 tons. The annual capacity of the 
company is equal to the production of 400,000 tons of coal; 150,000 
tons of native ore; 170,000 tons of foreign ore; 100,000 tons of pig 
iron ; 6,000 tons of castings ; 25,000 tons of girders, iron plates, and 
bar iron; 1,000 tons of steel plates; 100,000 tons of steel rails, 
bars, and tires ; 1,500 tons of steel ordnance, car wheels, locomotive 
wheels, etc. ; 8,000 tons of steam engines and mechanical apparatus ; 
10,000 tons of bridges, boilers, and structural iron; and 14 ocean or 
river vessels. The company has frequently rolled 365 tons of rails 
in 24 hours. The number of locomotives annually built is about 
100 ; of steam engines, 70 ; and of machines of all kinds, 100. In 
the fiscal year 1877-8 the greatest activity prevailed in the Bes- 
semer steel works, which produced 83,000 metric tons of steel, 
a large increase upon 65,000 tons in 1876-7. The company also 
made 57,000 tons of rails in 1877-8, an increase upon 45,000 tons 
in 1876-7. The works at Seraing cover 220 acres, and at Hoboken 
22 acres. Such is a representative Belgian iron and steel enterprise. 
Other iron and steel exhibits in the Belgian section, by the 
Angleur, Esperance, Ougree, Sclessin, Providence, Couillet, Chateli- 
neau, and other companies, were scarcely less interesting than that 
of the Cockerill Company. They embraced iron and steel rails, 
plate and sheet iron, bar iron, beams and girders, pig iron, iron 
ores, and Bessemer and Siemens-Martin steel in various forms. 
The display of beams, girders, and joists was very large, some of 
the specimens beiDg of exceptional lengths and novel sections. The 
company at Angleur exhibited fine Bessemer steel castings. The 



BELGIUM. 39 



sheet iron exhibited by the Esperance Company was in all respects 
excellent. The ironmasters of the Charleroi district contributed a 
consolidated exhibit of beams, girders, rails, wire, sheets, pig iron, 
etc., which was very attractive. There was a good display of cast 
iron pipes. Locomotives and railway cars from the shops of the Com- 
pagnie Beige, of Brussels, and several other companies were among 
the prominent exhibits, and it may be mentioned that the building 
of steam engines, locomotives, and other railway rolling stock for 
export is a leading branch of Belgian industry, the cities of Brussels, 
Seraing, Liege, Couillet, Tubize, and others, being engaged in their 
manufacture. The display of tires, axles, locomotive springs, and 
other railway appliances was good. Mining machinery was another 
leading feature of the Belgian exhibit. A noticeable display of 
machine tools, engines, steam pumps, hydraulic presses, beet-sugar 
machinery, etc., was made by Cail, Halot & Company of Brussels. 
Machine tools were quite numerous in the Belgian section, and these 
and the heavy machinery were usually excellent. The display of 
iron wire, especially of gauges below No. 20, was large and credit- 
able, and several machines were exhibited which make wire nails 
and tacks. But the Belgian display of general hardware, fine cut- 
lery, small castings, edge and other tools, and agricultural ma- 
chinery was neither large nor impressive. The Belgian iron and 
steel industries appear to have been developed most in the direction 
of rolling mill products and heavy machinery. The bar iron of 
Belgium has long been celebrated for its excellence. There were 
creditable displays of coke and compressed fuel. The latter was a 
prominent feature of the Belgian exhibit, and its manufacture in 
Belgium is so extensive as to have justified this prominence. Coal 
mining in Belgium dates from the 12th century. 

The Belgian iron industry is of very great antiquity, dating from 
about the beginning of the Christian era. It appears to have never 
ceased to exist from that time until the present. At first the most 
primitive processes were employed, and afterwards blast furnaces 
and refinery forges. There was a charcoal furnace in operation at 
Dames, near Namur, in 1340. At the close of the 15th century 
leather bellows were in use for driving blast furnaces in the district 
of Liege. In 1560 Belgium had 35 blast furnaces and 85 forges. 
In 1693 a " splitting mill " is mentioned. Down to 1800 the fur- 
naces were octagonal in form and only about 15 feet high ; in that 
year circular furnaces were introduced ; they were built 25 feet 
high, and the remarkable product of three tons a day was realized. 



40 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



Charcoal becoming very scarce, John Cockerill was successful in 
1826 in introducing the use of coke in the blast furnace. In 1830 
the coke furnace in Belgium that would yield 2,000 tons of pig iron 
in a year was doing well. The puddling of iron and the use of 
grooved rolls were introduced into Belgium from Great Britain 
soon after the battle of Waterloo restored peace to Belgium and 
to Europe, the first puddling furnace in the kingdom having been 
erected in 1821. Belgian ironmasters have not been slow to ob- 
serve and to utilize the improvements of other countries. In 1872 
the Danks puddling furnace was introduced by the Societe* Anony- 
me of Sclessin, and about the same time Lauth's three-high plate 
rolls were adopted by the Ougree and Esperance companies. 

Steel was first made in Belgium in 1753, but its manufacture was 
never largely developed until 1862, when the first Bessemer steel 
works in the kingdom were established. Just prior to that event, 
in the year 1860, Belgium produced only 3,172 tons of steel, part 
of which was crucible steel and part what is termed German steel. 
A year ago there were but three Belgian works engaged, in the 
manufacture of steel by casting : the Cockerill Company, with 8 
Bessemer converters ; Rossius, Pastor & Company, at Angleur, with 
4 Bessemer converters ; and the Sclessin Company, at Tilleur, with 
a Siemens-Martin plant. Since then the Ponsard furnace has been 
introduced by the Societe de Thy-le-Chateau for the production of 
steel rails. The Ougree Company is also erecting a gas furnace, 
with the view of making steel by the open-hearth process. 

The statistics of the Belgian iron, steel, and coal industries are 
very full and complete. There are about 70 blast furnaces in the 
kingdom, 56 being the largest number that were ever in blast in 
one year. Only 26 were in blast in 1877, a fact due mainly to the 
increasing scarcity of native ore, but partly to foreign competition, 
and partly to the unsuitableness of domestic ores for Bessemer steel. 
The pig iron branch of the Belgian iron trade is therefore only 
moderately prosperous. The production of pig iron in recent years 
has been as follows : 1850, 144,452 metric tons ; 1860, 319,943 tons ; 
1870, 565,234 tons ; 1872, when the maximum was reached, 655,- 
565 tons ; 1876, 571,267 tons, the decline being gradual from 1872. 
The production of wrought iron, bar iron, blooms, plates, iron rails, 
etc., was 61,970 metric tons in 1850 ; 200,596 tons in 1860 ; 491,563 
tons in 1870 ; 510,920 tons in 1874, when the maximum was 
reached ; and 416,714 tons in 1876. In 1877 and 1878 there was 
an improved foreign demand for the products of Belgian rolling 



AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY. 41 



mills, and production was slightly increased. In 1875 Belgium 
produced 20,440 metric tons of chains, cables, anchors, nails, etc., 
and in 1876 the production of castings was 80,759 tons. The pro- 
duction of steel was 3,172 metric tons in 1860 ; 9,563 tons in 1870 ; 
and 75,258 tons in 1876. Of the production in 1876, 71,758 tons 
were Bessemer steel, of which 65,000 tons were rolled into rails. 
The production of Bessemer steel exceeded 100,000 tons in 1877. 
In the fiscal year 1877-8 the John Cockerill works alone produced 
83,000 tons of Bessemer steel. The production of steel in Belgium 
is steadily increasing. The production of iron ore has rapidly de- 
clined from 1,018,231 metric tons in 1865 to 269,206 tons in 1876. 

The production of coal in Belgium steadily increased from 
3,929,962 metric tons in 1840 to 15,778,401 tons in 1873, when the 
maximum was attained. There was a decline in 1874, a slight 
recovery in 1875, and a "decline to 14,329,578 tons in 1876. To this 
may be added the production in the same year of about 300,000 
tons of artificial mineral fuel, or briquets, which has since been in- 
creased to about 500,000 tons annually. 

The Belgian imports and exports of iron ore, pig iron, manufac- 
tured iron, and steel for 1878 were as follows : Iron ore, imports, 
chiefly from the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, 833,922 metric tons ; 
exports, chiefly re-exports to France, 239,728 tons. Pig iron, im- 
ports, chiefly from England, Germany, and the Grand Duchy, 210,- 
353 tons; exports, 5,362 tons. Manufactured iron, imports, 8,575 
tons; exports, 191,062 tons. Nails and wrought iron sundries, im- 
ports, 3,409 tons; exports, 26,444 tons. Castings, imports, 2,030 
tons ; exports, 10,509 tons. Steel, imports, 4,992 tons ; exports, 
36,816 tons. These figures show a total of 229,299 tons of imports, 
and 270,193 tons of exports. Belgium's exports of machinery are 
large. Of the exports of iron and steel in 1878, no less than 58,282 
metric tons were sent to Great Britain, of which over 49,000 tons 
were merchant iron, and the remainder was nails, rails, etc. The 
Belgian exports of rails have greatly declined since 1874, but the 
other iron and steel exports have been well maintained. 

The imports of coal and coke into Belgium in 1876 amounted 
to 832,296 tons, Great Britain being the principal contributor, and 
Germany supplying a large part of the remainder. The exports in 
the same year were 4,399,605 tons, almost wholly to France. 

AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY. 

Americans do not usually associate the Austrian Empire with 



42 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



the manufacture of iron and steel on a large scale, and yet these 
are among its most important productions, and the industries de- 
voted to them have an honorable rank in comparison with like 
industries of other countries. Austria (in which I include Hun- 
gary) is the sixth among iron and steel producing countries, and 
she occupies no mean place as a manufacturer of machinery. As 
a manufacturer of textiles, glassware, and other light products of 
skilled industry, as a manufacturer of beet sugar, and as the liberal 
promoter of an extensive railway system, she occupies a position of 
well-deserved prominence. With internal and external peace, and 
perseverance in the tolerant and conciliatory policy which now char- 
acterizes the administration of her affairs, Austria may be expect- 
ed to become within the next ten years one of the very first among 
industrial nations. That she has not been generally recognized in 
our country as a possible future rival in the production of iron and 
steel is mainly due to our lack of commercial intercourse with her 
people, but partly, also, to the almost total absence of Austrian iron 
and steel products at the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876. When 
it was held the interest in international exhibitions of her iron and 
steel producers and of many other Austrian manufacturers appeared 
to have been exhausted by their splendid contributions to the Vienna 
Exhibition in 1873. But Austria grandly rallied in 1878 from her 
lethargy in 1876, and her whole display at Paris was exceedingly 
interesting, her iron and steel exhibits being especially large and 
varied. 

The principal Austrian exhibitors of iron and steel and of rail- 
way material at Paris were the Austrian and Hungarian State 
Railway Companies, closely followed, however, by other large com- 
panies. It is a peculiarity of the iron and steel and coal industries 
of the empire that the government railroad companies are exten- 
sively engaged in their development and at widely separated locali- 
ties ; and it is also a peculiarity of these industries that the compa- 
nies which were organized expressly and solely to engage in their 
development have their enterprises as greatly scattered as those of 
the railroad companies. These results have largely grown out of 
a spirit of speculation which was rife in Austria a few years ago, 
many of the speculations proving to be disastrous. The financial 
stringency which occurred in Austria early in 1873 was the begin- 
ning of the period of world-wide depression the end of which we 
have not yet seen. Large stock companies were organized to absorb 
and operate various consolidated small enterprises. Most of these 



AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY. 43 



inflated organizations still remain in existence, but their stock has 
greatly contracted in value. They have served a useful purpose in 
stimulating the development of Austrian mineral resources, and in 
relieving the empire of dependence upon other countries for iron 
and steel and things made from them. 

The exhibit of iron and steel and their products which was 
made by Austria embraced the same classes of heavy articles that 
were exhibited by France, Great Britain, and Belgium : pig iron of 
various grades ; iron and steel rails ; Bessemer and Siemens-Martin 
steel ; spiegeleisen ; crucible, puddled, and cemented steel ; rolled 
iron for building purposes ; plates and sheets ; axles and tires ; loco- 
motives and other railway requisites ; chilled car wheels ; tubes and 
pipes ; iron permanent way for railroads ; a general assortment of 
heavy and light machinery, etc., etc. Joined to these were samples 
of fuels and iron ores. Much of the pig iron was made with char- 
coal, and was excellent in quality, being specially adapted to the 
manufacture of steel. The locomotives were among the finest in 
the Exposition. About 1840, when Austria began to build rail- 
roads, she adopted the American locomotive as a model, and the 
Austrian locomotives of to-day are very similar to those of the 
United States. Railroad crossings of chilled iron were exhibited 
by Ganz & Co., of Buda-Pesth, who also exhibited a fine collection 
of chilled car wheels of American style, one of which had run 
329,400 miles and another 380,000 miles. It is stated that chilled 
car wheels have been used on the Emperor Ferdinand Railway, 
in Northern Austria, since 1855, and have ever since increased 
in number, so that now, with 10,000 freight cars, 23,140 such 
wheels (21,696 from Ganz & Co., and 1,444 from Count Andrassy's 
works at Dernoe,) are in use. Projectiles made of chilled cast iron 
were also exhibited by Ganz & Co. Two styles of iron permanent 
way were exhibited, several systems of which have been intro- 
duced upon Austrian and Hungarian railroads. Of sugar-making 
machinery there was a large display, but of agricultural machinery 
and implements the display was greatly inferior to that of France, 
Great Britain, or the United States. The exhibit of wood-working 
machinery was small. Stationary and portable engines were numer- 
ous in the Austrian and Hungarian sections. Boilers made of Besse- 
mer steel plates were exhibited by the Emperor Ferdinand Railway 
Company, and good boiler plates of Bessemer steel were exhibited 
by the Hungarian State Railway Company. Steel armor plates 
were exhibited by J. Braun's Sohne, of Schondorf. The exhibit of 



44 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



wire, wire rope, and wire-work of all kinds was very extensive. 
Austria vies with Westphalia in the manufacture of products of 
this class. Car and carriage springs were shown in profusion, as 
were railway appliances generally. A locomotive fire-box, made 
of Siemens-Martin steel, with arched and corrugated sides and top, 
was a prominent object. 

Franz Wertheim & Company and John Weiss & Sons exhibited 
fine collections of bench tools. The former firm also exhibited fire 
and burglar proof safes. Miners' tools were exhibited by Mahler & 
Eschenbacher. J. Braun's Sohne exhibited files. The Eisen and 
Stahlgewerkschaft of Eibiswald exhibited a number of circular and 
band saws. The display of cutlery was meagre, and very inferior to 
that made by Austria at Vienna. Like Belgium, the Austrian dis- 
play of iron and steel and their products at Paris was notably rich 
in heavy articles and heavy machinery. It was not seriously defi- 
cient in small wares, the manufacture of which requires delicate 
manipulation or the application of delicate machinery, but they did 
not form one of its prominent features. 

The manufacture of iron and steel in the Austrian Empire is 
distributed over a large part of its territory, which may be divided 
into three grand divisions. The most prominent of these is in the 
southwestern part of the empire, and embraces Styria, Carinthia, 
and the remaining provinces of the Austrian Alps. This district 
is remarkably rich in iron ores of superior quality, principally 
spathic, this variety being practically free from impurities, and 
well adapted to the production of steel, in which it is now largely 
employed. The spathic ores of Austria and Hungary have long 
been celebrated as among the best steel-producing ores in the world. 
In Styria and Carinthia are situated the two famous iron mountains, 
Erzberg and Hiittenberg, which were worked by the Komans and 
by the Celts two thousand years ago. In late years the Erzberg 
has yielded 175,000 tons of iron ore annually. Iron has been made 
in these Alpine provinces in furnaces of various forms of construc- 
tion since the eighth century. Until the present century charcoal 
was the only fuel that was used, both in the furnaces and in refinery 
forges, but now wood, brown coal or lignite, and coke are also used. 
Lignite of excellent quality is found in Styria, and it is used with 
satisfactory results in blast furnaces and puddling furnaces. Exten- 
sive deposits of lignite which have not yet been developed are found 
on the line of the railroad from Vienna to Trieste. Peat is also 
largely used in Styrian puddling furnaces, partly in the ordinary 



AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY. 45 



way and partly in connection with Siemens regenerative furnaces. 
True bituminous and anthracite coals are found in the Alpine 
provinces, but not in appreciable quantities. 

The next most important division is in the northwestern part of 
the empire, and embraces Bohemia, Moravia, and Austrian Silesia. 
Iron was made in Bohemia long before the beginning of the Chris- 
tian era. In some portions of this district there is good coal in 
large quantities, which makes an excellent coke for blast furnaces, 
but in others coal is scarce or impure, and lignite and wood are 
used. Lignite is abundant, and of good quality. Bohemia produ- 
ces more than one-half of all the coal and lignite mined in the em- 
pire. The iron ores of this division are not generally so pure as 
those of the Alpine provinces, but included in them are some rich 
deposits of magnetic, specular, spathic, and red and brown hematites. 
Many of the ores are manganiferous. Much of the iron of this dis- 
trict is well adapted to foundry purposes, and it has been custom- 
ary to make large and small castings direct from the blast furnace. 
Cupola foundries, some with hot blast, are, however, common, and 
usually well employed. Until quite recently charcoal has been the 
only fuel used in this district, and it is still largely consumed in 
blast furnaces and in a few bloomaries or refinery forges. Blooma- 
ries were only a few years ago very numerous in this district, Bohe- 
mia alone having 110 in 1865, which converted into wrought iron a 
large part of the product of 28 blast furnaces : now, however, pud- 
dling furnaces are numerous, in 1871 there being 116 in Bohemia 
and 70 in Moravia and Silesia. 

The third division into which the Austrian iron industry is terri- 
torially divided embraces the extensive provinces lying wholly or in 
part in the Carpathian mountains — Hungary, Galicia, Buckowina, 
Transylvania, and others. This division, like the one last named, 
has a variety of ores, a large proportion of them being of good quality. 
The development of large deposits which are known to exist in Gali- 
cia and elsewhere has scarcely been commenced, while others have 
been worked for centuries. The primitive wolf furnaces are still to 
be found in use in this district, as well as bloomaries ; but charcoal 
and coke furnaces, rolling mills, and yet more modern processes are 
numerous. Charcoal is the principal fuel used in the blast furnaces. 
Coal is scarce, but lignite is abundant. 

The first puddling furnace in Austria was built at Witkowitz, 
in Moravia, in 1826, and at the same place the first coke blast fur- 
nace in the empire was built in 1838. From these two events 



46 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



may be dated the beginning of the modern iron industry of Austria 
The first coke furnace in the Alpine provinces was erected at Pre- 
wald, in Carinthia, in 1870 ; the first puddling furnace in Carin- 
thia was erected in 1828. German steel made in Styria and Carin- 
thia was celebrated for its excellence fifty years ago, when the 
annual production was about 15,000 tons, a part of which found 
its way to American markets. These provinces have also, for 
many years, made crucible steel of excellent quality. Puddled 
steel has been made in Austria since 1835, but in large quantities 
only since 1852. It was at one time largely used for rails. It is 
still made in small quantities. The first Bessemer steel works in 
Austria were commenced at Turrach, in Upper Styria, in 1862 ; 
there are now 13 works in the empire, with 32 converters. These 
works are located in various provinces, but principally in Styria. 
At most of the works the pig iron is run direct from the blast fur- 
nace into the converter. At the works at Reschicza, in Hungary, 
there are three converters, each of 9 tons' capacity; the annual 
product of the works is, however, only about 9,000 tons. Spiegel- 
eisen is manufactured at several places in Austria ; ferro -manganese 
is also manufactured in blast furnaces in the province of Carniola, 
and probably elsewhere. Siemens furnaces have been used in Aus- 
tria since 1858, when they were introduced at Kapfenberg in con- 
nection with the manufacture of cast steel. In 1867 the Siemens- 
Martin process was introduced at the same place, but the manufac- 
ture of steel by this process has never been greatly extended in 
Austria, the earlier processes and the Bessemer process being in 
greater favor. The manufacture of tin-plate has been thoroughly 
established at several places. 

As has already been intimated, there are many strong companies 
engaged in the manufacture of iron and steel in Austria and Hun- 
gary, and their enterprises have been projected on a scale worthy of 
more prominent iron and steel making countries. 

The whole number of blast furnaces in the Austrian Empire in 
1876 was 279, of which 166 were in blast and 113 were out of blast. 
The production of pig iron and castings from the blast furnace in 
1840 was 144,352 metric tons ; in 1850 it was 223,045 tons ; in 
1860 it was 348,798 tons; in 1870 it was 452,244 tons; in 1873, 
when the maximum was attained, it was 594,980 tons ; in 1876 it 
was 450,933 tons. These figures show a more gradual increase in 
the production of pig iron than has been the experience of some 
other countries, and they also show a smaller proportionate decrease 



AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY. 



47 



in production since the culminating point was reached in 1873. 
The present blast furnace practice of Austria and Hungary is per- 
haps presented in its most favorable aspect in the record made in 
1873 by two Buttgenbach coke furnaces erected by the Innerberger 
Company at Schwechat, near Vienna. They are each 60 feet high, 
18 feet diameter at the boshes, 12 feet diameter at the top, and 7 feet 
across the hearth. There are two blowing engines, each of 360 
horse-power. In 1873 each furnace made 50 tons of pig iron daily 
from 112^ tons of Styrian spathic ore, 7 i to 12i tons of limestone, 
and 62 £ tons of coke. 

At the close of 1877 there were 17 rail mills in the empire. The 
course of the rail manufacture since 1870 is seen in the following 
table. 



Year. 


Iron Rails. 


Steel Rails. 


Total. 


1870 


Metric tons. 

89,790 
90,463 
86,556 
80,742 
54,797 
40,155 
22,819 
18,645 


Metric tons. 

17,307 
23,199 
38,009 
50,327 
57,169 
61,345 
64,491 
79,065 


Metric tons. 

107,097 
113,662 


1871 


1872 


124,565 
131,069 
111,966 
101,500 
87,310 
97,710 


1873 

1874 

1875 

1876 

1877 



These figures indicate the same tendency to substitute steel rails 
for iron rails that is observable in other countries. The growth of 
the Bessemer steel industry in Austria has, however, been very slow. 
In 1864, when the first works went into operation, the production 
was 306 metric tons ; six years later, in 1870, it amounted to only 
20,722 tons, with six works in operation ; in 1874 it reached 96,958 
tons, with 9 works in operation ; since that year the production has 
twice fallen slightly below 90,000 tons ; but in 1877 there was an 
increase to 97,470 tons, with 13 works and 32 converters in exist- 
ence, and 11 works and 28 converters in operation. The exceed- 
ingly small output of so many works and converters is in part 
accounted for by the small size of the converters, which are gener- 
ally of from 2j to 3 tons' capacity. 

The production of iron ore in the Austrian Empire amounted to 
573,079 metric tons in 1851, and in 1873 it amounted to 1,588,256 
tons, the increase in the meantime being gradual. From 1873 to 
1876 there was a steady decline in production, the figures for the 
latter year being 902,421 tons. 



48 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



The production of coal in Austria and Hungary, the mining of 
which dates from the middle of the 16th century, amounted to only 
94,607 metric tons in 1819, and to only 944,323 tons in 1850. In 
1855 there was an increase to 2,101,050 tons ; in 1865 to 5,069,303 
tons ; in 1870 to 8,355,944 tons ; and in 1876, when the maximum 
was reached, to 13,362,586 tons, of which 5,564,331 tons were pit 
coal and 7,798,255 tons were lignite. 

The imports of iron and steel into the Austrian Empire have 
undergone as great a change in late years as have similar imports 
into our own country since 1873. From 1866 to 1872 the imports 
of pig and scrap iron increased from 131,351 metric tons to 219,- 
078 tons, but in 1876 the imports were only 38,057 tons. From 
1868 to 1870 the imports of rails rose from 54,218 tons to 116,813 
tons, but have since steadily fallen to 805 tons in 1876. The imports 
of bar iron have fallen from 27,880 tons in 1872 to 1,458 tons in 
1876. The imports of hardware and machinery have fallen from 
64,551 tons in 1872 to 20,363 tons in 1876. The imports of steel 
have fallen from 1,127 tons in 1871 to 880 tons in 1876. 

The exports of iron and steel from Austria have increased in 
recent years until in many particulars they now exceed the imports. 
In 1875 the exports of rails amounted to 10,774 metric tons, but fell 
in 1876 to 4,325 tons. In 1875 the exports of pig and scrap iron 
reached to 10,727 tons, but fell in 1876 to 7,317 tons. The exports 
of bar iron amounted to 7,056 tons in 1875, and to 8,304 tons in 
1876. The exports of hardware and machinery reached to 26,886 
tons in 1874, but fell to 19,926 tons in 1876. The exports of steel 
of all descriptions have not greatly varied from 4,000 tons annually 
from 1866 to 1876. 

The imports of iron ore have always been inconsiderable, the 
largest quantity having been reached in 1872, when 15,675 metric 
tons were imported, since which year there has been a steady decline 
to 2,429 tons in 1876. The exports of iron ore appear to have been 
highest in 1875, when the quantity amounted to 52,817 tons ; in 
1876 there were 38,159 tons sent out of the country. 

Since 1865 the imports and exports of coal into and out of 
Austria have both grown steadily, owing mainly to the completion 
of railway communications with neighboring countries, but the 
exports have increased the most. In that year the imports were 
366,488 metric tons, and the exports were 385,662 tons. In 1876 
the imports were 1,574,575 tons, and the exports were 2,734,862 tons. 

The foregoing statistics and other references appear to establish 



RUSSIA. 49 



conclusively the fact that Austria is possessed of sufficient resour- 
ces to enable her to supply her own iron and steel wants, and the 
further fact that she is now supplying them. Recent information 
leads to the conclusion that the government of the empire will pur- 
sue a revenue policy that will tend at least to confirm Austrian iron 
and steel manufacturers in the possession of the home market. 

RUSSIA. 

Russia ranks seventh among iron-producing countries, and her 
exhibit of iron and steel products at Paris was worthy of her rank. 
Although the iron industry of Russia is not of recent origin, having 
existed long before the days of Peter the Great, two centuries ago, 
it has not been characterized by a progressive spirit nor by notable 
activity until within the past few years. The present Emperor, 
Alexander II, has given to it greater encouragement and a greater 
impetus than any one of his predecessors. This he has done by a 
variety of measures, including a protective tariff, bounties to special 
manufactures, and the extension of railroad communications. It 
will be a long time, however, before all the widely-separated parts 
of his vast empire will be joined together with iron bands, as the 
United States is now joined, and in the meantime it is too much to 
expect that Russia, wise as her ruler is, and enterprising as her 
ruling classes are, will be able to fully utilize her scattered mineral 
resources. She is not wanting in iron ore, nor in fuel to smelt it 
and to refine the iron obtained from it ; but she is largely wanting, 
because of the vastness of her territory, in the means necessary to 
bring the fuel to the ore and the iron to a market. It is, therefore, 
all the more to her credit that she has made even limited prog- 
ress in the development of her iron resources, and that her iron 
and steel makers were enabled to make the fine display they did at 
Paris. The Russian iron and steel exhibit was one of the most valu- 
able and most interesting in the Exposition. It was mainly com- 
posed of articles which charcoal and not mineral fuel had produced, 
a fact suggestive of immense possibilities, for, if such progress could 
be made with a fuel which has never yet fully developed the iron 
resources of a single country, not even excepting Sweden, what may 
not be possible when her extensive deposits of mineral fuel come 
generally into use as an addition to the vast quantities of charcoal 
which the boundless Russian forests are yet capable of supplying 
when they shall be penetrated by Russian railroads ? 



50 THE IKON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



The principal exhibitor in the iron and steel department of the 
Russian section was Prince Demidoff, whose extensive works in the 
Ural mountains, where he owns a million and a half acres of forests 
and mineral lands, have long been noted. He is a large manufac- 
turer of pig iron, finished iron, and Bessemer and other steel. The 
Russian Government works and several private companies were also 
well represented. The entire exhibit embraced samples of magnetic 
and other iron ores of extraordinary richness and purity; fine 
samples of charcoal pig iron ; and a full assortment of bar iron, 
sheet iron, plates, rods, iron wire, axles, tires, car wheels, iron and 
steel rails, Bessemer and Siemens-Martin steel, crucible and pud- 
dled steel, projectiles, swords, chains, etc. Prince Demidoff showed 
Bessemer steel boiler plates of excellent quality ; also Bessemer steel 
rails 45 feet long, and another steel rail, 50 feet long, which had 
been twisted cold ; also plates and rods of Siemens-Martin steel, 
some of which had been bent and broken to show their quality ; 
also a disc of the same kind of steel, f of an inch thick, and 7 feet 
5 inches in diameter. The same exhibitor also showed a variety of 
steel tools, scythes, swords, etc. Several kinds of steel, all of excel- 
lent quality, were shown by several exhibitors, with fine effect. The 
Imperial Technical School of Moscow made a good display of tools, 
as did also a few other exhibitors. The display of cutlery was not 
large, but it was remarkably good, and indicated not only the pos- 
session by Russia of the best of steel but the possession also of the 
best of skill in its manipulation. The knives, forks, scissors, and 
swords exhibited were not surpassed in excellence by any similar 
display. Hackman & Co., a Finnish firm, of Wiborg, were promi- 
nent among the Russian cutlery exhibitors. In their works they 
employ 90 men. In machine and other castings the Russian section 
was not far behind the best of its competitors, but in heavy ma- 
chinery, agricultural implements, and railroad appliances it was 
deficient in extent and variety. The Industrial Society of Varso- 
vie exhibited a collection of car couplings, car springs, and wrought 
iron car wheels. A few steam engines of creditable workmanship 
were exhibited, as were detached parts of engines, well made and 
exquisitely polished. Much of the engine work was produced by 
the pupils at the Industrial Schools of Moscow and St. Petersburg. 
Messrs. Lillipop, Rau & Loewenstein, of Yarsovie, exhibited beet- 
sugar machinery. Specimens of the bituminous and anthracite coal 
of Russia were exhibited, the former of various qualities, and the 
latter said to analyze 90 per cent, of carbon. 



RUSSIA. 51 



The iron and steel industries of Russia may be said to have the 
whole empire for their home, for they are found in many parts of it 
— in the Ural mountains in the east, in the Donetz mountains in the 
south, in the vicinity of Moscow in the centre, in Poland and neigh- 
boring territory in the west, and in Olonetz and Finland and at St. 
Petersburg in the north. The Ural mountains produce more than 
half of the pig iron annually made in* Russia, and a large part of 
the finished products. At and near St. Petersburg is displayed the 
greatest localized activity in the production of rails, plates, steel, 
and some other finished products. Bessemer steel is now made suc- 
cessfully at three or four establishments in the empire, and open- 
hearth steel is made at many places in Siemens-Martin and Pernot 
furnaces. Crucible and puddled steel of good quality have long 
been made. Chrome steel, from native ores, is made at the Obou- 
choff Steel Works, near St. Petersburg. Siemens regenerative fur- 
naces are common. Spiegeleisen is successfully made, in Finland 
and in the Ural mountains. Russian ores are of various qualities, 
magnetic, specular, brown and red hematites, etc. Some ores are 
taken from the bottom of bogs and lakes, and they are found in 
quantities which are practically inexhaustible. No other country 
in Europe is better supplied with good ores than Russia, not even 
Sweden and Spain. The magnetic mountain of Blagodat, in the 
Ural mountains, is one of the richest and most remarkable iron ore 
deposits in the world. It has been worked for 140 years. 

At Kolpino, near St. Petersburg, on the railroad leading to Mos- 
cow, extensive works have recently been erected for the manufacture 
of boiler and ship plates, armor plates, beams, angles, bars, and 
other iron for use in the government ship-yards and in the construc- 
tion of government buildings. At Alexandrovsky, near St. Peters- 
burg, are situated the Obouchoff Steel Works, at which heavy steel 
guns are manufactured from crucible cast steel. Ingots of steel 
weighing 40 tons and upwards have been cast at these works, each 
40-ton ingot requiring the use of 1,200 crucibles. An 80-ton gun 
was made here a few years ago, the ingot for the breech-block of 
which weighed nearly 50 tons, and was hammered into shape 
under a 50-ton hammer. Most of the crucibles are heated with 
imported coke, but Siemens gas furnaces supply heat to others. A 
Bessemer converter, of 5 tons' capacity, has been in use for several 
years. These works make weldless tires, wheels, axles, shafts, boiler 
plates, etc., for Russian railroads, all of Bessemer or open-hearth 
steel. They were established about twenty years ago, and now 



52 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



employ 2,500 men. Near St. Petersburg is the largest rail-making 
establishment in Russia, the Poutiloff Works, which produces annu- 
ally about 16,000 tons of rails and 4,000 tons of steel tires and oth- 
er finished products. At these works Bessemer converters have been 
in use for several years and a large Siemens steel plant has been 
erected. There are connected with these works four charcoal fur- 
naces and a rolling mill in Finland. On the Neva, five miles from 
St. Petersburg, is a large plate and merchant bar mill, and a ship- 
building yard, owned by the Russian Engineering and Mining 
Company, with a capital of about $5,000,000. This company built 
the Grand Admiral a few years ago, the engines for which were 
supplied by a St. Petersburg firm. The armor plates for the 
Russian imperial frigate, the Duke of Edinburgh, were, however, 
made at the Motala Works, in Sweden. At Briansk, on the Orel- 
Witebsk Railway, a large mill for rerolling iron rails, and for the 
manufacture of iron bridge-work, was started in June, 1874. The 
Imperial Gun Foundry at Perm, in the Ural mountains, is an ex- 
tensive establishment, which has long been engaged in the manufac- 
ture of cannon and projectiles, musket barrels, and other warlike 
material. It has recently been greatly enlarged. Steel has long 
been manufactured here in crucibles, and a Pernot furnace is now 
in use. At Kama the Jjeff 's Arms Factory is employed in the 
manufacture of needle guns, and crucible steel is here made with 
Siemens gas furnaces, charcoal being used as fuel. At the Nijni- 
Salda Iron Works of Prince Demidoff a very complete Bessemer 
plant was added in 1875. The converters are of 5 tons' capacity, 
and the metal is run into them direct from blast furnaces specially 
constructed for this purpose. A new rolling mill, with a 350 horse- 
power steam engine, has been added to the one previously in use. 
The machinery for these improvements was largely manufactured at 
Nijni-Taguil, where some of Prince Demidoff's works are located, 
and where a Siemens-Martin plant has recently been erected, with a 
capacity of 32 tons of steel daily. Spiegeleisen is made at Taguil. 
The New Russia Company, founded by Mr. John Hughes, owns 
blast furnaces and rail mills in Donetz Valley, Southern Russia. 
A Siemens-Martin steel plant has recently been erected at these 
works, and the Russian Government has lately given the company 
orders for steel rails aggregating 43,225 tons. In Southeastern 
Russia are located the various iron enterprises of the Vyksounsky 
Company, an English organization, which possesses four hundred 
thousand acres of forests and mineral lands, and carries on the iron 



RUSSIA. 53 



manufacture in many of its branches, making pig iron, bar iron, 
tires, hoops, plates, sheets, telegraph and other wire, nails, steam 
engines and other heavy machinery. The works of this company 
are greatly scattered. At Huta Bankowa, in Russian Poland, are 
four blast furnaces and a rolling mill, which are reported to have 
passed into the hauds of a French company that proposes to add 
a steel plant, with which it expects to make steel rails, tires, axles, 
and other railway material. In the Nijni -Novgorod district new 
iron works were established in 1875, by Jonooskopf & Mendeleieff, 
consisting of a blast furnace, 42 feet high, blown with a horizontal 
engine, puddling and reheating furnaces, and a train of merchant 
rolls. In April, 1876, a new establishment for the manufacture of 
wrought iron pipes was started at St. Petersburg. The great central 
market for the sale of iron in Russia is Nijni -Novgorod. 

Many of the iron and steel works of Russia are owned in whole 
or in part and directly or indirectly managed by the. government. 
Some of the enterprises already mentioned are thus owned and con- 
trolled. A few others may be mentioned, some of great antiquity. 
In the district of Blagodat, in the province of Perm, are situated 
the Kushwinsk blast furnaces, commenced in 1735 ; the Verkhni- 
Turinsk furnaces, which date from 1737 ; the Baranchinsk furnaces, 
which date from 1743 ; the Nijni-Turinsk iron works, founded in 
1766, and which produce annually about 2,200 tons of bar and 
sheet iron and boiler plate ; and the Serebranskii works, established 
in 1784, which make about 800 tons of finished iron, 1,000 tons of 
puddled iron, and 650 tons of steel annually. The Serebranskii 
works are driven by ten water wheels, and have four Siemens fur- 
naces and three trains of rolls. At the Knase-Michailovski works, 
in the mining district of Zlatoust, province of Ufa, is a very exten- 
sive manufactory of cannon and small arms, founded in 1771, which 
includes a steel department, of large and varied capacity. The 
Satkinsk works, in the same district, established in 1756, produce 
pig iron. The Watkinskii works, founded in 1759, annually make 
about 1,000 tons of wrought iron, 100 tons of chains, 1,000 tons of 
rails, and 500 tons of steel. The Kamskii works, in the province 
of Perm, founded in 1862, annually produce about 500 tons of 
armor plates, and other heavy iron for shipbuilding purposes, and 
employ 850 workmen. In Olonetz and Finland are the Alex- 
androvskii works, founded in 1772, which constitute a gun and 
projectile foundry; the Koncheoserkii furnace, dating from 1707; 
the Suojarvi furnace, owned by the government since 1856 ; and the 



54 THE IKON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



Valaasminskii furnace. These furnaces use lake or bog ore, as do 
most of the Finnish furnaces. At Slawkaw, in Russian Poland, 
are government works which produce sheet iron,; and at Panki, also 
in Poland, is a government blast furnace. 

In addition to the various iron and steel enterprises here enumer- 
ated there are other extensive works in the Ural mountains, in 
Finland, and elsewhere, but sufficient details have been given to 
show the progress that Russia- has made in the introduction of 
modern processes of iron and steel manufacture. Her pig iron was 
eagerly purchased by England and other countries two centuries 
ago, because of its exceptional excellence, and her sheet iron, made 
by a process peculiarly her own, has long challenged the admiration 
of the world. 

The accessible statistics of the iron and steel industries of Russia 
do not come down to a later period than 1875. In that year there 
were produced 426,896 metric tons of pig iron and furnace castings 
from 913,607 tons of iron ore ; 243,126 tons of bar iron, rails, etc. ; 
60,693 tons of plates and sheets ; and 12,928 tons of steel. The 
quantity of iron ore mined in 1875 amounted to 1,063,831 tons. In 
1866 the production of iron ore was 581,771 tons. In 1830 the 
production of the blast furnaces amounted to 183,104 tons ; in 1860 
to 297,937 tons; and in 1870 to 359,989 tons. In 1860 the pro- 
duction of wrought iron was 183,735 tons, and in 1870 it was 251,- 
582 tons. In 1860 the production of steel was 1,051 tons, and in 
1870 it was 8,788 tons. The production of iron ore, pig iron and 
castings, wrought iron, and steel, respectively, was greater in 1875 
than in any preceding year. In 1873 there were in Russia 245 
blast furnaces, 522 puddling furnaces, 700 reheating furnaces, 20 
puddling and reheating furnaces, 840 refinery furnaces, 472 steel 
furnaces, 191 cupolas, and 88 air-melting furnaces. In 1876 the 
number of blast furnaces in Finland was 21. In this district and 
in other portions of Russia the furnaces are small, and at nearly all 
of them water-power is used. With scarcely an exception, charcoal 
is used as fuel. A great deal of iron is still refined in Russia in 
Catalan forges and bloomaries, and by other primitive methods. 
The fuel used is charcoal, and power is obtained from the moun- 
tain streams. 

The mining of coal in Russia is mainly confined to the districts of 
Donetz, Vistula, and Moscow, although coal is found in several 
other localities. The Donetz district is in the Donetz mountains in 
Southern Russia, and is one of the most extensive in Europe ; it 



SWEDEN. 55 



contains both anthracite and bituminous coal, much of it of good 
quality. The Moscow district is in Central Russia, and the Vistula 
district is in Russian Poland. The total production of all the coal 
fields of Russia was 437,625 metric tons in 1867, and 1,709,269 tons 
in 1875. Of the production in 1875, the Donetz district yielded 
842,558 tons ; the Moscow district, 387,538 tons ; and the Vistula 
district, 407,935 tons. The methods employed in the mining of 
Russian coal are not usually the best that science and economy 
would suggest, but that great progress is being made in its devel- 
opment is shown in the greatly increased production from 1867 to 

1875. Incomplete statistics for 1876 show a production in that 
year approximating 2,000,000 metric tons. The coal in the neigh- 
borhood of Moscow is largely lignite, but of good quality. 

The imports of iron and steel and of machinery into Russia are 
large, indicating that, if there has been over-production of these 
products in other countries, there has certainly been none in this. 
In 1875 there were imported, principally from Great Britain, 57,464 
metric tons of pig iron; 87,705 tons of bar iron; 58,126 tons of iron 
rails ; 111,554 tons of steel rails ; 31,031 tons of hoops, sheets, etc. ; 
3,813 tons of plates ; and 19,638 tons of steel. Since 1875, how- 
ever, the iron and steel industries of Russia have... been greatly 
stimulated, and the imports of 1875 have not been maintained, al- 
though still large, owing to the pressing exigencies created by the 
war of 1877-8 with Turkey. In 1878 four iron vessels and forty 
locomotives were purchased in the United States. This country has 
also supplied large quantities of agricultural implements to Russia, 
but Great Britain has been an active competitor in this field. The 
imports of coal into Russia amounted to 1,497,214 metric tons in 

1876, Great Britain, Germany, and Austria supplying all. The 
Finnish furnaces are partly supplied with ore from Sweden. 

If the published statistics of Russian exports are correct, the 
exports of iron amounted to 14,062 metric tons in 1876, and to 
1,145 tons in 1877, while the exports of steel amounted to 71 tons 
in 1876. The exports of coal in 1876 amounted to only 565 tons. 

SWEDEN. 

This most interesting country made a splendid display at Paris 
of its iron and steel resources, as it has done at all recent interna- 
tional exhibitions. No better iron is made in the world than is 
made by Sweden, with native ores and charcoal fuel, and, having 



56 THE IEON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



to rely mainly upon other countries to consume what she produces, 
she would have been faithless to her own interests if she had not 
exhibited samples of this iron upon every suitable occasion. But 
she has not been satisfied merely to exhibit these samples ; she has 
arranged them with the utmost taste and care, giving them a really 
artistic embellishment, which has not, however, imparted to them a 
gaudy and offensive prominence ; and, to still further heighten the 
effect and add to the value of their display, she has distanced all 
her rivals in the enterprise and tact she has shown in printing and 
circulating, in many languages, exhaustive descriptions of her 
metallurgical resources, of the methods employed in their utili- 
zation, of the capacity of her manufacturing establishments, and 
of the character of their products. No American who visited the 
Philadelphia Exhibition can forget the Swedish iron and steel 
exhibit, or the great work of Professor Akerman, which was freely 
distributed, " On the State of the Iron Industry in Sweden." At 
Paris similar taste and similar enterprise were displayed. The 
Swedish iron and steel exhibit was in every respect magnificent. 
The display of Swedish machinery and tools and cutlery was also 
very creditable, but it was not large. The machinery display was 
not so large as that of Belgium, which is a much smaller country 
and lacks Sweden's metallurgical resources. 

The Swedish iron and steel exhibit comprised all the raw mate- 
rials and finished products the country produces. The well-known 
Motala Company was the principal exhibitor. There were many 
specimens of the rich magnetic, specular, hematite, and other ores 
of the country ; specimens of pig iron, spiegeleisen, bar iron, rods, 
wire, billets, and nails ; Bessemer, crucible, and Si«mens-Martin 
steel ; steel and iron plates ; wrought iron car wheels, etc. Some 
of the specimens were twisted, bent, and fractured to show their 
quality. The Swedish Iron Board showed Bessemer and Siemens- 
Martin plates and also iron plates, all of which had been subjected 
to comparative tests which established the superiority of those made 
of steel. In machinery there were various wood-working machines 
of ordinary excellence; a Bessemer steel marine boiler; a couple 
of vertical engines, and a few other good engines. J. & J. C. Bol- 
inder, of Stockholm, exhibited saw-mill machinery, circular saws, 
and a large collection of stoves and furnaces. The display of agri- 
cultural implements and machinery was neither large nor note- 
worthy ; but a better display could not, perhaps, have been justly 
expected, as Sweden is not greatly favored in its agricultural capa- 



SWEDEN. 57 



bilities. The articles exhibited were not, as a rule, light and grace- 
ful and "handy," like their American rivals. In tools generally 
Sweden showed to better advantage, and in knives, razors, scissors, 
and other cutlery there was a small but creditable display. Of 
railway appliances the display was small, and not specially re- 
markable. It is a fair criticism of the entire Swedish exhibit of 
iron and steel to say that the quality of the articles shown was not 
excelled in the Exposition, and that in extent and variety they 
were excelled only by Great Britain, France, and Belgium ; and 
it is also a fair criticism of the machinery, tools, and other iron 
and steel articles exhibited to say that they indicated that Sweden 
has not made the same progress in the reproductive arts associated 
with the iron and steel manufacture that has been made by Great 
Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Belgium, and Austria. 
A stranger can not well understand why a people so intelligent 
and skillful as the Swedes, and possessed of their resources, should 
have so generally limited their energies to the production of crude 
or half-manufactured iron and steel products, excellent and unsur- 
passed as they are. 

The principal iron ore deposits of Sweden are found in the dis- 
trict lying immediately north of lakes Wenner and Wetter, and 
northwest of Stockholm. Here are located a majority of the blast 
furnaces and finished iron and steel establishments of Sweden. The 
ores found in this district are principally magnetic. Iron ore is, 
however, found in almost all parts of the kingdom, and in Lapland 
there are immense deposits of magnetic ore which have remained 
practically undeveloped because there has been no great scarcity of 
good ores elsewhere in Sweden. The rock or mountain ores of Swe- 
den are almost free from phosphorus, and many of them are rich in 
manganese. They are therefore well adapted to the production of 
Bessemer steel, in the manufacture of which Sweden was the first 
country in the world to win complete success, but in which she has 
not recently borne a prominent part. The pig iron intended to be 
converted into Bessemer steel is produced in charcoal furnaces, and 
from them is run direct, without exception, into the converters, which 
are of from 2 to 4 tons' capacity. The ore and the fuel both being 
of the best quality, the steel produced is in every respect superior. 
I am reminded by Professor Akerman that at the Paris Exposition 
of 1867 Sweden exhibited the finest razors and similar wares of 
Bessemer steel, and that in the manufacture of cutlery in SAveden 
this metal is now almost exclusively employed. At the Bessemer 



58 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



steel works powerful blowing engines are used, and with one excep- 
tion (Sandviken) they are all driven by water-power. The early 
converters are all stationary, but a majority of the Bessemer works 
have movable converters. Some of the ores used in the production 
of Bessemer steel are so rich in manganese that the addition of 
spiegeleisen in the converter is not necessary. This is also promi- 
nently the case with the Altenberg spathic ores which are used in 
the manufacture of pig iron by the Neuberg works in Styria, in 
Austria, and from which the celebrated Neuberg Bessemer steel is 
obtained. Such spiegeleisen and ferro-manganese as are needed in 
the manufacture of Swedish steel are easily produced. 

The magnetic and specular ores of Sweden, called mountain ores, 
are appropriated to the production of wrought iron and steel, and 
the ores found in the lakes and bogs, which are chiefly obtained in 
one province, (Smaland,) are mainly used in the production of foun- 
dry iron. The latter ores contain phosphorus. The blast furnaces 
of Sweden were built about 30 feet high until within the last few 
years ; modern furnaces are from 40 to 55 feet high, and from 7 to 
101 feet wide at the boshes. Pine and spruce charcoal is almost 
exclusively used as fuel in the blast furnaces, wood and brushwood 
being sometimes mixed with it, and occasionally a little coke. It 
need scarcely be added that the Swedish method of preparing ores 
for the furnace and the subsequent treatment of them are pains- 
taking in the extreme, securing great excellence and uniformity of 
product. The production of the furnaces ranges from 30 to 120 tons 
a week. Almost without exception blast is supplied by water-power. 
Wrought iron is usually obtained by refining pig iron in Lanca- 
shire hearths, and subsequently hammering or rolling the blooms. 
The Lancashire process was introduced from England about 1830 
by Gustaf Ekman, a distinguished Swedish ironmaster. The Fran- 
che-Comte process, which is a modification of the Lancashire pro- 
cess, is used at some of the smaller works, and at still other works, 
in Dannemora, the Walloon process is" used. Other refining hearths 
may yet be found in Sweden, but are not much used. All these are 
but modifications of the ordinary bloomary process. Catalan forges, 
for the reduction of ore directly to wrought iron, have been aban- 
doned in Sweden, but the other methods, just mentioned, which have 
been generally superseded by puddling furnaces in other iron-making 
countries, are still popular with the Swedes. In the Lancashire, 
Franche-Comte, and Walloon processes charcoal is the only fuel 
that is used. Puddling is done at only a few works, chiefly with 



SWEDEN. 59 



imported coal, but air-dried pine wood is used at two works, and 
at Motala and Surahainmar regenerative gas furnaces for peat 
have been successfully introduced. 

German steel has long been made in Sweden, and small quanti- 
ties are still made. Puddled steel is made at two works. The 
manufacture of steel in crucibles by the Uchatius method is in 
operation at Wikmanshyttan ; crucible cast steel is also made at 
Osterby, in a Siemens-Lunden furnace, with wood as fuel. Since 
1868 the open-hearth process has been in use at Munkfors, where 
the works of the Uddeholm Company are located, and since that 
year other works have adopted it. A Pernot furnace has been 
erected at Boxholm. In 1876 there were 19 Bessemer works in 
Sweden, but some of them were not then at work, and the producing 
capacity of nearly all of them was small. 

The primitive methods of iron manufacture which have been 
mentioned have become deeply rooted in the affections of the 
Swedish people, and partly to this preference, partly to the absence 
of mineral fuel for the generation of steam and for other purposes, 
partly to the absence of restrictive duties on foreign iron and steel 
and iron and steel products, and partly also to the scarcity of capi- 
tal and the insufficiency of railroad and canal transportation, may 
be attributed the slow progress made by Sweden in increasing the 
production of her iron which was famous for its excellence before 
a pound of iron was made in the United States, and even before 
prophecy had foretold for England her marvelous career in sup- 
plying the world's demand for iron and steel. These primitive 
methods are so generally adhered to to-day that, even if the other 
influences named were essentially modified, the production of iron 
and steel in Sweden would not increase very rapidly. A few large 
coke furnaces, supplied with fire brick hot blast stoves and power- 
ful blowing engines, would double the production of pig iron, but 
they will not soon be built, although coke might easily be ob- 
tained from England or Germany. One Bessemer establishment 
such as we have in the United States would double the production 
of Bessemer steel, but the Swedes have no present use for it. Qual- 
ity not quantity is their motto, and it is a good one ; but they might 
have both if they would. They ought, at least, to have supplied 
their own iron and steel wants, which, remarkable as it may seem, 
they have not done for many years. 

The works of the Motala Company are the most important in 
Sweden. They comprise five distinct establishments : (1) the 



60 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



works at Motala ; (2) the Motala ship-yard at Norrkoping ; (3) 
the Lindholmen ship-yard and machine shops; (4) the Nykop- 
ing works; (5) the Bangbro iron and steel works. Plates, bars, 
tires, gun bands, railway wheels, locomotives, castings, and Besse- 
mer and Siemens-Martin steel are among the products of the 
various works. The Motala is a limited company, with 800 shares, 
the aggregate par value of all of which is about $1,100,000. In 
1874 there were paid by this company for labor and materials about 
$2,000,000, exclusive of the Bangbro works. Other large works 
are those of the Fagersta, Sandviken, Surahammar, and Udde- 
holm companies. 

Very few iron rails are made in Sweden, and still fewer steel rails. 
There is but little local demand for the latter, and they can not 
be manufactured so cheaply as to permit of their exportation. The 
iron rails used -are chiefly imported, the Swedes preferring to put 
their good iron into other forms and buy " cheap " British and Bel- 
gian iron rails, upon which they impose no duty. It may be safely 
assumed that so long as this policy is continued neither the iron nor 
the steel rail trade of Sweden will prosper. Before 1870 no rails 
of any kind were made in Sweden. Wrought iron railway wheels ; 
railroad axles of steel and iron ; steel tires ; nails, wire, and other 
iron and steel products are manufactured in small quantities ; but 
here again production and prosperity are less than would exist if 
import duties were higher than they are. In the manufacture of 
locomotives and railroad cars Sweden does not supply her own 
wants. 

In the southwestern part of Sweden, opposite " The Sound," in a 
district of country of which Helsingborg is the principal town, is 
found the only coal deposit thus far discovered in the kingdom. 
The coal is of an inferior quality, and the annual product has never 
amounted to 100,000 metric tons ; it was 92,352 tons in 1876. It 
seems probable that Sweden will never greatly increase this prod- 
uct, but British and German coal are so near at hand that the 
absence of native coal is not a serious drawback to those industries 
on or near the sea-coast which require mineral fuel in the produc- 
tion of steam, or are otherwise best promoted by its use. The im- 
ports of coal and coke are aunually increasing. In 1855 they 
amounted to only 135,652 metric tons; in 1876 they had reached to 
946,092 tons, Great Britain supplying almost the entire quantity. 
Since 1876 Germany has made a determined effort to supply the 
Scandinavian countries and Russia with her Westphalian coal. 



SWEDEN. 61 



The production of iron ores in Sweden was 417,337 metric tons in 
1860, of which 395,111 tons were mountain ores, and 22,226 tons 
were lake and bog ores. In 1874 the production was 926,825 tons, 
when the maximum was reached, of which only 4,300 tons were 
lake and bog ores. In 1876 the production of mountain ores fell to 
787,461 tons, while that of lake and bog ores increased to 9,000 
tons. The exports of Swedish ores are mainly to Finland, amount- 
ing to 25,310 metric tons in 1874, and in 1876 to 14,920 tons. The 
imports of iron ore are only nominal, amounting in 1874 to only 
191 metric tons, probably from Norway. 

In 1875 there were 325 blast furnaces in Sweden, of which 224 
were in blast, and 101 were out of blast. In 1876 there were 
205 in blast, which produced 344,834 metric tons of pig iron. 
The production of pig iron in 1860 was 179,897 metric tons ; in 
1870 it was 293,253 tons; and in 1873 it was 339,685 tons. The 
production of castings from the blast furnace has increased since 
1860, when it was 5,237 metric tons ; in 1876 7,788 tons were pro- 
duced. In 1875 there were produced 17,331 tons of castings in 61 
foundries; 189,845 tons of wrought iron were produced with 770 
furnaces and fires in 33 works ; and 21,385 tons of Bessemer, open- 
hearth, and other steel were produced in 33 steel works, of which 
19,370 tons were Bessemer steel. The total production of rails in 
1875 was 2,893 tons ; of plates and sheets, 9,077 tons ; of wire and 
nails, 8,313 tons; of tools, 1,847 tons; of "other hardware," 16,- 
110 tons. 

The imports of iron and steel, machinery, tools, and cutlery into 
Sweden, principally from Great Britain, aggregated 88,355 metric 
tons in 1875, of which 55,099 tons were rails, and 17,924 tons were 
pig iron. The total value of the imports was £1,628,386, of which 
£824,938 represented " machines and tools," not including steam 
engines and edge tools. In 1875 the imports of iron and steel 
amounted to 65,893 tons, of which rails formed just one-half. The 
exports of iron and steel, etc., from Sweden in 1875 amounted to 
204,752 metric tons, of which 106,393 tons were bar iron ; 48,742 
tons were pig iron; 12,439 tons were blooms; 20,049 tons were 
hoop, bulb, and " other iron ;" and 6,273 tons were " raw steel." 
The value of the exports was £2,512,549. In 1876 only 174,862 
tons were exported. It is plain that Sweden does not derive the 
benefits from her valuable iron resources that she might. She im- 
ports almost half as much iron and steel and their products as 
she exports, and pays for the articles she imports more than half 



62 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



the money she receives for her exports. Greater diversification of 
her mechanical industries, greater persistence in those for which she 
possesses special facilities, a wider acceptance of modern metallurgi- 
cal methods, an increase of her 2,500 miles of railroad to at least 
5,000 miles, and a protective tariff are the great needs of the iron 
and steel industries of Sweden. 

UNITED STATES. 

The United States is the last to be mentioned of the eight coun- 
tries named in a preceding table which produce more than ninety- 
eight and a half per cent, of all the iron and more than ninety-nine 
per cent, of all the steel made in the world ; but it is the second in 
rank among these countries. 

As has been already stated, the whole display made by the United 
States at Paris was inadequate and not fairly representative of the 
industrial resources and progress of our country. This remark is 
especially applicable to the display of iron and steel and their prod- 
ucts. The great rolling mills and steel works of the country liter- 
ally made no sign of their capabilities, and our equally great blast 
furnaces and machine shops were scarcely represented, and our cut- 
lery and tool manufactories but partially. It is not merely a fa- 
miliar rhetorical pleasantry to say that the products of all these 
establishments were conspicuous by their absence, for their presence 
in force had been expected, and with reason. The Philadelphia 
Exhibition had taught the world that the United States had devel- 
oped unsurpassed enterprise, and skill, and resources in the produc- 
tion of all kinds of iron and steel, and machinery, cutlery, and tools, 
and surely it was not to have been expected that the manufacturers 
of these products would so generally ignore another world's fair two 
years later. To be more specific, it may be frankly stated that 
absolutely nothing was exhibited by the various steel works of the 
country, nor by the rail, bar, plate, sheet, hoop, and wire mills. 
Not a rail, nor a bar of iron, nor an ingot of steel of American 
manufacture was on exhibition, and only a few kegs of cut nails. 
The large locomotive works of the United States were represented 
by one locomotive ; the manufacturers of steam fire engines sent 
only one engine; the manufacturers of machine tools sent almost 
nothing ; there was but one exhibit of pig iron and but two or 
three exhibits of iron ores ; no American railway freight car was 
on exhibition ; there was but one exhibit of American anthracite 



UNITED STATES. 63 



coal, and none whatever of our unequaled Connellsville coke. Of 
bituminous or semi-bituminous coal from the great coal basins of 
the country West Virginia made the only display. We sent but 
few stoves, although we make the neatest, cheapest, and best stoves 
in the world. An unpleasant subject may be dismissed with the 
summary statement that a great opportunity to deepen the good 
impression made at Philadelphia by our iron and steel manufac- 
turers, and by our manufacturers of heavy machinery, and of cut- 
lery and tools, and to reap the fruits of that impression, was almost 
wholly lost at Paris — lost because our own government delayed too 
long the acceptance of the invitation by the French government to 
participate in the Exposition, and because when the invitation was 
accepted sufficient money was not appropriated to enable manufac- 
turers to make a proper display of their products. 

The Barnum Richardson Company, of Lime Rock, Connecticut, 
made a very fine exhibit of Salisbury iron ores, charcoal pig iron, 
and chilled car wheels. Samples of the pig iron and some of the car 
wheels were broken to show their quality. Some of the Salisbury 
wheels of exceptional excellence have made the following mileage 
record on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad : 4 
wheels averaged 185,049 miles ; 2 averaged 220,528 miles ; 2 others 
averaged 198,967 miles ; 3 averaged 189,397 miles; 6 averaged 175,- 
203 miles ; and 4 averaged 168,979 miles. The Lobdell Car Wheel 
Company, of Wilmington, Delaware, also made a very creditable dis- 
play of chilled car wheels, and of chilled iron rolls for calendering 
paper and for other manufacturing purposes. The company also 
submitted printed statements showing the amount of service per- 
formed by some of the wheels of its manufacture. One wheel had 
been twenty-five years in service on the New York and Erie Rail- 
road, and is supposed to have run a million miles ; other wheels had 
been in use on the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Rail- 
road over twenty years, but their mileage is not known. From 
50,000 to 80,000 miles is a common record for the Salisbury and 
Lobdell car wheels to make. The paper-making rolls exhibited by 
the Lobdell company attracted great attention ; they were smooth 
and perfectly true, and the chill was of a depth with which Euro- 
pean founders are unfamiliar. They were polished like silver. 
Whitney & Sons, of Philadelphia, exhibited chilled car wheels of 
their make which suffered nothing by comparison with the exhibits 
of the other manufacturers mentioned. Some of the wheels were 
broken, to show the quality of the iron and the depth of the chill. 



64 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



A wheel was exhibited by this firm which had traveled 120,000 
miles under the tank of a locomotive and was fit for further service. 
Chilled car wheels are not a novelty in Europe, but they are not 
generally in use, except perhaps in Austria, and it was gratify- 
ing to see three of our leading car- wheel manufacturers so mindful 
of the opportunity presented to them at Paris to add to the popu- 
larity of American wheels. Our exports of these wheels may be 
largely increased with a little effort. 

Samples of iron and steel produced by the direct process of C. 
M. DuPuy, of Philadelphia, were exhibited by Philip S. Justice, of 
the same city. Mr. DuPuy has since been called to Europe to ex- 
plain his process. Morris, Wheeler & Co., of Philadelphia, exhib- 
ited samples of their cut nails ; and Hoopes & Townsend, of the 
same city, exhibited complete and handsome samples of their nuts, 
bolts, screws, rivets, and washers. The nuts manufactured by this 
firm are made by machinery and punched cold, and are perfect in 
every respect. Machine-made horse-shoe nails, bright and well pro- 
portioned, were exhibited by the Globe Nail Company, of Boston. 
Aiken & Drummond, of Louisville, Kentucky, exhibited an inge- 
nious machine for making moulds for all kinds of fine and other 
metal castings. Scales for mines, foundries, furnaces, rolling-mills, 
railroads, and miscellaneous uses were exhibited by the Fairbanks 
and the Howe scale companies of Vermont, and formed the finest 
display of the kind at the Exposition. 

The American display of machinery and machine tools was not 
large, as has already been stated. Very heavy mining, excavating, 
lifting, and manufacturing machinery was wholly wanting, but the 
model of a machine for mining coal was exhibited by the Lechner 
Mining Machine Company, of Columbus, Ohio. No machinery 
whatever for making iron or steel was exhibited. Of cotton, woolen, 
and silk manufacturing machinery the only exhibits were the Jac- 
quard loom of Tilt & Son, of Paterson, New Jersey, and a circular 
loom for weaving multiply fabrics, exhibited by J. V. D. Reed, of 
New York. There were several steam engines, of various forms of 
construction, on exhibition, and, as already stated, one locomotive — 
the last exhibited by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Com- 
pany, which also exhibited the only sample of American anthracite 
coal I observed at the Exposition. An engine of the Corliss type, 
with improved valves and valvular arrangement, was exhibited in 
motion by Jerome Wheelock, of Worcester, Massachusetts, and at- 
tracted much attention from experts. A sample of bituminous coal 



UNITED STATES. 65 



from the Indian Territory and other small samples of the same kind 
of coal from the Pacific Coast were exhibited. Among the machine 
tools exhibited was the Blake stone and ore crusher, and a very fine 
collection of the machines of the Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing 
Company, of Providence, Rhode Island. Bliss & Williams, of New 
York, and the St. Louis Stamping Company also made noticeable 
displays of their stamping machines, and the former firm exhibited 
other metal-working machines. In the class of railroad apparatus 
there were exhibited, in addition to the articles already mentioned, 
samples of car springs, by the National Car Spring Company, of 
New York ; a street railway car, by J. G. Brill, of Philadelphia ; 
three cars of the same description, by the John Stephenson Com- 
pany, of New York ; one model of a sleeping car and one full-sized 
sleeping car, by the Pullman Palace Car Company, of Chicago ; and 
automatic air brakes, by the Westinghouse Air Brake Company, of 
Pittsburgh. The Collins Company, of Hartford, Connecticut, and 
the Douglas Axe Manufacturing Company, of Boston, exhibited 
axes, hatchets, and other edge tools which justly received much 
attention, and were in the highest degree creditable to our country. 
Several firms exhibited carpenters' tools, and other firms exhibited 
garden tools and agricultural implements, such as rakes, hoes, 
shovels, forks, etc. Oliver Ames & Sons, of North Easton, Massa- 
chusetts, made a fine display of shovels and spades. The excellence 
of American rakes, hoes, forks, shovels, etc., is everywhere recog- 
nized in Europe, where many of them are in use. Files and rasps 
were exhibited by McCaffrey & Brother, of Philadelphia ; and the 
Russell & Erwin Manufacturing Company, of New Britain, Con- 
necticut, showed a full collection of its celebrated specialties. Tacks 
and nails were exhibited by A. Field & Sons, of Taunton, Massa- 
chusetts ; and pumps, hydrants, hydraulic rams, etc., by W. & B. 
Douglas, of Middletown, Connecticut. The only display of Ameri- 
can saws was made by Henry Disston & Sons, of Philadelphia, and 
it not only elicited the hearty praise of all who saw it but it was 
generally recognized as the best exhibit of the kind at the Exposi- 
tion. J. A. Fay & Co., of Cincinnati, Trump Brothers, of Wil- 
mington, Delaware, and others, exhibited wood- working machinery. 
Machines for making boots and shoes, for crimping leather, and for 
sewing were exhibited, and served to illustrate not only the inventive 
genius of the American people but the extensive use which their 
general adoption of labor-saving machinery has created for iron and 
steel in the United States. 



66 THE IEON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



The display at Paris of American agricultural machines — mow- 
ers, reapers, threshers, binders, etc., — was in all respects creditable. 
It is not my province to enter into particulars concerning it, or con- 
cerning the triumphs of American agricultural machines at the 
competitive trials which took place in France during the summer ; 
but I could not pass without notice such a magnificent collection of 
labor-saving inventions, to the neatness, completeness, lightness, and 
success of which American iron and steel have so greatly con- 
tributed. 

Imperfect and unsatisfying as was the American mechanical dis- 
play at Paris, it nevertheless was sufficiently meritorious to elicit 
from that great exponent of European and especially English public 
opinion, the London Times, the highest measure of praise. Whole 
columns were devoted by it last summer to eulogizing American 
mechanical genius and its productions. It may not be inappropriate 
that I should close my reference to the American display at Paris 
by quoting from the Times of August 22, 1878, the following brief 
paragraphs. 

Finest type of the Yankee contrivance is the Stow "flexible" shaft for 
transferring power round corners and to out-of-the-way places. One sees the 
operator holding what seems at first sight to be a small garden hose, but fur- 
nished with an auger at its extremity, with which he thrusts and bores in 
every direction — over his head, under his feet, to the right, to the left — it up- 
sets all one's ideas of rigidity. Pharaoh could not have been more surprised 
at seeing Moses' rod turn to a serpent than we were to see this rope-like affair 
eating into the planks set on all sides for it to work on. It is as good as a 
piece of legerdemain. It is really a "flexible shaft" — a cable of steel wires 
wound coat over coat, each successive coating in the reverse direction from the 
preceding, until the strength required is attained, and in which longitudinal 
flexibility is combined with circumferential rigidity. 

Close by it stands Clough & Williamson's "wire cork-screw machine," 
which catches a straight piece of steel wire and throws it out a cork-screw of 
such temper that it may be driven through an inch deal plank and not yield 
a hairs breadth. The deftest waiter will take as long to pull a cork as this 
machine to make half-a-dozen cork-screws of an exceptionally good quality. 

Here is a screw-cutting machine, which takes a rod of iron, steel, or brass, 
and by an automatic series of operations drops screws at the other end of the 
machine. One tool cuts the point of the rod down to the dimensions of the 
screw, another cuts it oif, having the head the full size of the rod, another 
takes it from the last and passes it on to have the thread cut, a cutter* passes 
by and leaves it slotted, another with four iron fingers takes it and transfers it 
to a fifth cutter, where the head is finished, when still another tool comes to 
push it into the pan placed to receive it. No intervention is needed until 
another rod is wanted. 



UNITED STATES. 67 



A set of shoe-making apparatus in another enclosure takes the leather in 
the hide and turns out, with slight manual application, a pair of shoes, sewed, 
pegged, or screwed, in about 15 minutes. 

The manufacture of iron in the colonies which now form the At- 
lantic portion of the United States commenced immediately after 
their first settlement by the English about the beginning of the 17th 
century. At first bog ores were used, and, although other and more 
valuable ores were soon afterwards discovered and used, it is worthy 
of remark that the use of bog ores continued in New England down 
almost to the middle of the present century. The first iron enter- 
prise in the colonies was undertaken on Falling creek, in Virginia, 
in 1619, but it ended disastrously in 1622, the Indians destroying 
the works, which were most probably forges. This enterprise was 
not revived. In 1643 a blast furnace was successfully established 
at Lynn, in Massachusetts, and in 1651 a forge was added at the 
same place. Soon afterwards other iron enterprises were established 
in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. About 1734 the 
development of the celebrated Salisbury iron ore district of Con- 
necticut was commenced by Thomas Lamb, who erected a forge at 
Lime Rock. Soon after 1664 iron was made at Shrewsbury, in 
New Jersey, by Henry Leonard, and in 1682 it is recorded that 
a forge and blast furnace were in existence at this place. Experi- 
ments in the manufacture of iron in Pennsylvania date from 1692, 
but iron was not successfully made until 1717, when Thomas Rutter 
built a forge on Manatawny creek, near Pottstown. Other iron 
enterprises in Pennsylvania soon followed. About 1715 the manu- 
facture of iron was revived in Virginia at Fredericksburg and com- 
menced in Maryland at Principio, in Cecil county. The Carolinas 
made iron about the same time. Iron was made in New York 
about 1740, on An cram creek, in Columbia county. No iron was 
made in Georgia until the present century. 

Early in the 18th century the exportation of iron from the colo- 
nies to England commenced, the scarcity of timber for charcoal 
preventing that country from making a large quantity of pig iron. 
Small quantities of bar iron were shipped in 1717 and 1718, and 
were followed by other shipments down to the Revolution. In 1728 
and 1729 the colonies exported 1,156 English tons of pig iron to 
England, and annually thereafter down to the Revolution pig iron 
was regularly exported to England and Scotland. The shipments 
of bar iron and pig iron never reached large proportions, aggre- 
gating only about 50,000 tons of bar iron and 150,000 tons of pig 



68 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



iron from their commencement to the Revolution. The iron in- 
dustry in the colonies was, however, so fully established that it 
supplied the home markets, which was a more important matter 
than the building up of a great export trade. When the war for 
independence came, success would have been impossible if the colo- 
nists had not been able to supply themselves with home-made iron 
for all warlike purposes. 

When the war for independence was over, the American iron in- 
dustry took a fresh start in many of the States, especially in Penn- 
sylvania, and many furnaces and forges were built, charcoal being 
the only fuel used. But the general use of coke in the blast fur- 
naces of England, and the introduction in the same country of 
puddling furnaces and grooved rolls, and the application of steam 
to rolling mills and blast furnaces, about this time wrought a great 
change in the English iron manufacture, and through these im- 
provements and the very low duties levied in this country on all 
imported iron England was enabled to contest with considerable 
success the possession by the States of their own iron markets. 
This formidable foreign competition had the effect in time of 
greatly retarding the development of the domestic iron industry. 
Notwithstanding the steady development of the country in other 
directions, its iron industry made but slow progress. In 1810 
the total production of pig iron was only 54,000 tons, and of 
bar iron only 24,541 tons. In 1820 the production of pig iron 
had fallen to 20,000 tons ; but in 1828, owing to the passage in 
1824 of a high tariff, it rose to 130,000 tons, and in 1832, in conse- 
quence of the continuance of the policy of 1824, it reached 200,000 
tons. But in 1833 a reactionary tariff policy was adopted, which 
continued until 1842, in which year the total production of pig iron 
was but slightly in excess of that of 1832, being 215,000 tons. 
From 1842 to 1846 high duties again prevailed, and in the latter 
year the production reached 765,000 tons. To this increase the in- 
fluence of mineral fuel, which had been recently introduced, in part 
contributed. In 1846 duties were again reduced, with the result that, 
notwithstanding the use of mineral fuel, for a year or two production 
remained stationary and then commenced to fall, dropping in 1852 
to 500,000 tons. From this time forward until 1860 the iron industry 
of the country very slowly advanced, despite the continued adherence 
of the government to a policy of low duties. It was fortuitously 
aided by the discovery of gold in California and Australia, which 
quickened business and commercial enterprise throughout the world ; 



UNITED STATES. 69 



by the Crimean war, which created a sudden demand for British 
iron and advanced its price ; and by the rapid growth from 1850 to 
1860 of the railway system of the United States. Notwithstanding 
these favorable influences, the production of pig iron only increased 
from 500,000 tons in 1852 to 821,223 tons in 1860. Protective du- 
ties were restored in 1861, but the depressing influences of the civil 
war in that and the following year reduced the production of iron 
below that of 1860. In 1863 and 1864 the wants of the govern- 
ment and the beneficial influences of the tariff of 1861 unitedly 
caused a production of 1,014,282 tons of pig iron in the latter year, 
from which there was a decline during 1865, when the war closed. 
After 1865 the production of all kinds of iron, and of steel also, 
rapidly increased, the stimulating effects of the tariff of 1861 being 
now everywhere perceptible, but the abundance of money and the 
fever for building railroads forming yet more potent influences in 
securing this increase. In 1872 the production of pig iron reached 
the very large quantity of 2,548,712 tons, and in 1873 even this 
product was slightly exceeded, 2,560,962 tons being then produced. 
But from 1873, when the financial and railroad panic occurred, 
until 1876 the production of pig iron gradually declined to 1,868,- 
960 tons. In 1877 it increased to 2,066,593 tons, and in 1878 the 
production was about 2,300,000 tons. With the steadiness in the 
currency which is now assured, and a continuance of the protective 
policy which has been in force since 1861, the production of pig- 
iron and of all kinds of iron and steel must continue to increase 
with the growth of the country in population and in general pros- 
perity. The imports of iron and steel have fallen to merely nomi- 
nal figures within the past few years, while our exports of these 
products and of articles manufactured from them is slowly in- 
creasing. The American consumers of iron and steel have never 
been supplied with these products at such low rates as are now 
charged — a result due wholly to home competition. 

The manufacture of iron in the United States is now established 
in twenty-nine out of thirty-eight States, and in two Territories and 
the District of Columbia. The manufacture of steel is established 
in seventeen States. In each of the years 1877 and 1878 Pennsyl- 
vania made just one-half of the total production of pig iron, and 
about 45 per cent, of all the rails produced. Her production of all 
kinds of rolled iron in these two years was about 40 per cent, of the 
total quantity rolled. In the manufacture of steel Pennsylvania has 
annually for several years produced more than one-half of the total 



70 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



product. Ohio is a large producer of pig iron, her annual product 
being about 400,000 tons. New York is the next most important 
pig iron producing State. In the manufacture of iron and steel 
rails Illinois is the second and Ohio the third State in the Union. 
The manufacture of crucible steel in the United States is mainly 
confined to Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania, New Jersey being the next 
most important seat of this industry. Open-hearth steel is made in 
eight States, from New Hampshire to Tennessee. There are eleven 
establishments in the United States for the manufacture of Besse- 
mer steel — one in New York, five in Pennsylvania, one in Ohio, 
three in Illinois, and one in Missouri ; all of these except the last 
were in operation in 1878. Michigan is the leading iron ore pro- 
ducing State, the product in 1878 being 1,125,231 tons. Fully one- 
third of all the pig iron produced in the United States is made from 
Michigan ores. New York, New Jersey, and Missouri have each 
yielded large quantities of iron ores for shipment to other States, as 
well as for use by local iron works. Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, 
and Alabama have also furnished ores for shipment to other States. 
The iron ores of the United States embrace all the varieties that are 
needed in the manufacture of iron or steel, but it is proper to say 
that the manganiferous iron ores of the country, although existing 
in various localities, have not yet been fully developed, necessita- 
ting the importation of considerable quantities of spiegeleisen and 
ferro-manganese, for use in the Bessemer and open-hearth processes ; 
also of Spanish and Mediterranean iron ores. Of coal there is an 
abundance, and, like the ores, it is well distributed. Of neither 
iron ores nor coal will the United States ever be in want. 

The production of iron and steel in the United States in 1877 
was as follows in English tons : Pig iron, 2,066,593 tons ; iron rails, 
296,910 tons ; Bessemer steel rails, 385,865 tons ; all rolled iron, 
not including rails, 1,021,624 tons ; crucible steel, 36,098 tons ; open- 
hearth steel, 22,349 tons; puddled and blister steel, 10,646 tons; 
Bessemer steel ingots, 500,524 tons. The production of Bessemer 
steel and of Bessemer steel rails greatly increased in 1878, the for- 
mer amounting to 653,773 tons, and the latter to 491,427 tons. 
In 1867 the production of Bessemer steel rails was only 2,276 tons. 
The production of open-hearth steel increased in 1878 to 32,255 
tons. Included in the rolled iron produced in 1877 were 4,828,918 
kegs of cut nails and spikes, each of 100 pounds' weight. 

The number of blast furnaces in the United States is now 700, of 
which not quite 300 were in blast in 1877 and 1878. These were 



UNITED STATES. 71 



generally the largest and best furnaces, the small and old-fashioned 
furnaces not being able to make iron at present prices. The num- 
ber of rolling mills in the United States (separate establishments 
which have one or more trains of rolls) is 340, containing 4,463 
single puddling furnaces, double furnaces being counted as two sin- 
gle ones. The number of Bessemer steel works is 11, each having 
two converters, the capacity of all the converters varying from five 
to seven tons at each blow. The number of open-hearth steel works 
is 14, with a united annual capacity of about 90,000 tons. The 
number of crucible and other steel works is 46, with an annual 
capacity of about 100,000 tons. There are yet in operation in the 
country 64 Catalan forges, for the direct conversion of iron ore 
into wrought iron ; these forges are mainly in New York and Ten- 
nessee, and in the former State they are wholly engaged in the pro- 
duction of iron for the manufacture of steel. Pig iron is converted 
into blooms in 58 bloomaries, which are mainly located in Pennsyl- 
vania. 

Down to 1835 all the pig iron manufactured in the United 
States was made with charcoal. In that year pig iron was suc- 
cessfully made with coke at a charcoal furnace in Pennsylvania, 
and in 1836 coke was successfully used at another charcoal furnace 
in the same State. Other furnaces in Pennsylvania commenced to 
use coke soon afterwards. In 1837 a furnace was built in Alle- 
ghany county, Maryland, expressly to use coke, and in 1840 two 
other furnaces were built in the same county for the same purpose ; 
all were successful in the use of the new fuel. In 1837 anthracite 
coal was successfully experimented with in charcoal furnaces in 
Pennsylvania in the manufacture of pig iron, and in 1838 a furnace 
was built at Mauch Chunk, in Pennsylvania, to use this fuel ; this 
experiment was also successful. But the most satisfactory experi- 
ment with anthracite coal was made with the Pioneer furnace at 
Pottsville in 1839, soon after which anthracite furnaces became 
quite numerous in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland. Bitu- 
minous coal in its raw state was first used in a charcoal furnace in 
Mercer county, Pennsylvania, in 1845, and in 1846 it was success- 
fully used in the Lowell furnace, in Mahoning county, Ohio, which 
was built specially for the purpose. In 1877 there were produced 
with anthracite coal 834,640 tons of pig iron ; with bituminous 
coal, raw or coked, 948,165 tons ; and with charcoal, 283,788 tons. 

The Bessemer process for the manufacture of steel was introduced 
into the United States in 1864 and 1865, and the first steel rails 



72 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



were made in the latter year. In 1865 the first Siemens gas fur- 
nace was built in the United States, at Pittsburgh, to melt copper, 
and in 1867 the Siemens furnace was successfully applied to the man- 
ufacture of iron and steel at various places. The Siemens-Martin 
process was successfully introduced into the United States by Coo- 
per, Hewitt & Co., in 1868, at their works at Trenton, New Jersey. 

Complete statistics of the production of coal in the United States 
have not been compiled for a later year than 1875, when 47,513,235 
tons were produced, of which 20,654,509 tons were anthracite ; 26,- 
031,726 tons were bituminous ; and 827,000 tons were post-carbon- 
iferous. The production of bituminous coal is believed to have 
increased since 1875, but that of anthracite was less in 1878 than 
in 1875. 

The imports into the United States in the fiscal year ended June 
30, 1878, were 55,000 English tons, chiefly spiegeleisen, valued at 
$1,250,057 ; 30,359 tons of bar, sheet, plate, and other rolled iron, 
valued at $1,627,052; no iron rails; ten tons of steel rails, 
valued at $530 ; machinery valued at $628,667 ; steel ingots, bars, 
etc., valued at $1,220,037 ; cutlery, files, saws, and tools, valued at 
$1,295,764. To show the favorable change that has taken place in 
our imports of iron and steel, it may be stated that in the fiscal year 
1872 there were imported into the United States 247,528 tons of pig 
iron, valued at $5,122,318; 129,811 tons of bar, plate, sheet, band, 
hoop, and scroll iron, valued at $6,900,521 ; 421,755 tons of iron 
rails, valued at $15,778,941 ; 109,781 tons of steel rails, valued at 
$6,277,694; machinery, valued at $1,054,045; steel ingots, bars, 
etc., valued at $4,033,508 ; cutlery, files, saws, and tools, valued at 
$3,269,143. The exports of domestic products from the United 
States in the fiscal year 1878 included 5,781 tons of pig iron, valued 
at $140,148 ; 10,990 tons of bar, sheet, plate, and railroad iron, val- 
ued at $482,908 ; 98 locomotives, 103 stationary engines, and other 
machinery and boilers, valued at $5,096,857 ; 70 tons of steel ingots, 
valued at $15,892 ; and cutlery, edge tools, files, and «aws, valued 
at $1,005,689. The imports of iron ore for the fiscal year 1878 
aggregated 29,765 tons, valued at $62,787. In the fiscal year 1877 
they were valued at $82,947, and the tonnage was estimated to have 
amounted to 41,473J tons. In 1878 iron ore valued at $662 was 
exported. In the fiscal year 1878 there were imported 578,457 tons 
of coal, principally from Nova Scotia, Vancouver's Island, and 
Australia, and 660,138 tons were exported, of which 319,477 tons 
were anthracite and 340,661 tons were bituminous. 



NORWAY. 73 



COUNTRIES WHICH MAKE BUT LITTLE IRON AND STEEL. 

The countries which unitedly make less than one and a half per 
cent, of the world's production of iron, and less than three-fourths 
of one per cent, of its production of steel, may be enumerated as 
follows : Norway, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Tur- 
key, Algeria, Morocco, Central and Southern Africa, India, China, 
Japan, Afghanistan, Persia, Australasia, British America, Mexico, 
and the States of South America. Some of these countries, it is 
well known, will never produce much iron or steel, and the limited 
resources which they possess for their manufacture need not there- 
fore receive much attention in this report ; others, however, possess 
ample resources, and the extent to which they have been developed, 
or are likely to be developed, whether illustrated at Paris or not, 
may well receive consideration. 

Beginning at the north of Europe is the first of the countries 
above mentioned, Norway. Its iron industry dates back several 
centuries, but it never reached a position of commanding import- 
ance, and it is now at a very low stage. In 1870 there were pro- 
duced 21,155 Norwegian tons of iron ore ; 3,975 tons of cast or 
pig iron ; 845 tons of wrought iron ; and 265 tons of steel. The 
Norwegian ton is equal to 2,200 English pounds. In 1861 the pro- 
duction was as follows : iron ore, 24,385 tons ; cast or pig iron, 
7,575 tons ; wrought iron, 3,895 tons ; steel, Qd tons. The produc- 
tion of iron ore appears to have reached its maximum in 1865, 
when 49,720 tons were mined. The exports of iron ores, princi- 
pally to England, increased from 335 tons in 1861 to 15,115 tons 
in 1870. Since 1870 the production and exportation of iron ores 
are said to have increased, but statistics are wanting. The exports 
of Norwegian iron amount to about 2,000 tons annually, and the 
imports to about 20,000 tons. The Baldwin Locomotive Works, of 
Philadelphia, have recently concluded a contract to supply four 
locomotives to Norway. 

There are 42 rolling mills, nail factories, foundries, machine shops, 
etc., in Norway. Iron ore is not so abundant as in Sweden, and 
what there is is not well developed. The iron industry of Norway 
is not so productive as it was a hundred years ago. The causes of 
this decadence may be found in the climate, the scarcity of forests 
of timber suitable for the manufacture of charcoal, the great 
demand for timber for exportation, the entire absence of mineral 
fuel, and the poverty of the people. What little iron is made in 



74 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



Norway is excellent ; it is all made with charcoal. Steel is made 
at only one establishment, the Naes Iron Works, where blister steel 
is first made by cementation and then melted in crucibles. It is not 
improbable that the iron and steel industries of Norway may some 
day take a fresh start, but they can never form an important factor 
in supplying the world's demands for these products. 

Norway made at Paris a small but fitting display of her iron 
resources and of her progress in the manufacture of machinery and 
tools. The iron ores, and the iron itself, of Norway were illustra- 
ted by several fine samples. Jacob Aall & Son, of Naes, showed 
several specimens of iron ores, cast and bar iron, raw and crucible 
steel, several cast steel cannon, and a collection of axes, ham- 
mers, files, and other tools. Plows, straw-cutters, and other agricul- 
tural implements, none possessing extraordinary qualities except 
strength, were exhibited; also several small engines. The Koaerner 
Works exhibited machine-made horse shoes. Visitors to the Phila- 
delphia Exhibition in 1876 will remember the unique and ingenious 
iron trophy, erected by the Cathrineholm Iron Works, representing 
an ancient Norway ship, full rigged and equipped, the whole com- 
posed of iron in appropriate forms. This ship was not exhibited 
at Paris. 

Spain is very richly endowed with iron ores of the best quality, 
and she possesses coal with which she might smelt these ores, but 
Spain has almost wholly neglected her opportunities, and instead of 
being an exporter of iron and steel she is an importer of these arti- 
cles and an exporter of iron ores, while her coal remains practically 
undeveloped. These results are the more surprising because anterior 
to the Christian era Spain was a manufacturer of iron. The sword 
blades of Toledo were celebrated during the Middle Ages. Catalan 
forges were so named hundreds of years ago from Catalonia, a prov- 
ince of Spain. But a change has recently taken place in public 
opinion in Spain in favor of the encouragement of domestic manu- 
factures, the government giving special encouragement to the mining 
of coal by requiring domestic coal to be used in the Spanish navy. 
The apathy and lack of capital of the Spanish people, and their 
need of a more extended railroad system, will, however, tend to 
retard the rapid multiplication of iron works and coal mines in 
Spain. 

The iron and steel exhibit made by Spain at Paris was surpris- 
ingly large and creditable. Four exhibits were especially notice- 
able — those of Duro y Compafiia Langres la Felguera, in the Astu- 



SPAIN. 75 



rias ; of Don Ybarra, of Barracaldo ; of the Fabrica de Quiros ; 
and of the Fabrica Nacional de Trubia. These exhibits embraced 
pig iron and iron ores ; bar, rod, sheet, plate, and shaped iron ; iron 
rails ; and puddled steel. Don Ybarra showed also samples of iron 
sponge made by the Chenot process. Jauragui, of Zorroza, showed 
some samples of wrought iron and cemented steel. The celebrated 
ores of Bilbao were well represented. Of the manufactures of iron 
and steel which were exhibited by Spain, mention may be made of 
a few good castings, of sabres and other cutlery and edge tools, of 
portable and stationary engines, and of agricultural and other light 
machinery, the whole forming an interesting display. The principal 
iron ore deposits of Spain lie on the northern coast, in the vicinity 
of Bilbao, but very promising mines have also been opened in the 
south of Spain, among which may be mentioned those of Palomares, 
in the Gulf of Vera, province of Almeria. Most of the Spanish ores 
are admirably adapted to the manufacture of Bessemer steel, and 
Great Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, and the United States 
are importers of them. The production of iron ores in Spain in 
1877 was 1,162,170 metric tons, of which over 1,000,000 tons were 
exported to Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, and the 
United States. 

Except Catalan forges, which are still in use in many provinces, 
the manufacture of iron and steel in Spain is confined to a few es- 
tablishments, and these are chiefly in the northern part of the 
country. The works of La Felguera comprise 4 blast furnaces, 24 
puddling furnaces, 10 reheating furnaces, 3 steam hammers, 39 steam 
engines, and a complete forge and rolling mill plant. They have an 
annual capacity of 20,700 tons of pig iron and 14,000 tons of rolled 
iron, including 5,000 tons of rails : puddled steel is made in small 
quantities. The works of Don Ybarra comprise 3 blast furnaces 
and a well-appointed rolling mill. There are a few other blast fur- 
naces and one or two small rolling mills. The total production of 
iron in Spain in 1877 was about 100,000 metric tons, of which about 
40,000 tons were wrought iron, and 60,000 tons were pig iron. 
Pig iron is made in part with charcoal and in part with coke. The 
Duro Company, of La Felguera, has Belgian coke ovens at Vega, 
and employs machinery for washing the coal. The production of 
steel in Spain was only 216 metric tons in 1873. The first blast fur- 
naces in Spain are said to have been erected near Marbella, on the 
Mediterranean, in 1828. 

The imports of iron and steel into Spain in 1875 were as follows: 



76 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



pig and scrap iron, 19,008 metric tons ; rails, 11,360 tons ; plates, 
sheets, etc., 5,904 tons ; hardware of iron and steel, 5,483 tons. In 
1874 there were imported 40,251 tons of bars, hoops, etc., and 3,222 
tons of steel. In 1877 Great Britain exported to Spain 33,237 Eng- 
lish tons of iron and steel. Of Spanish iron and steel exports sta- 
tistics are wholly wanting, and probably there are no such shipments 
to be recorded. 

The production of coal in Spain in 1876 was 706,814 metric tons, 
and the imports, chiefly from Great Britain, were 774,770 tons. The 
coal of Spain has been almost wholly developed since 1830, when 
10,524 tons were mined. The principal development has been in 
the northern part of the country. No exports are recorded. The 
number of miles of railroad in Spain is about 4,000. 

Portugal possesses both coal and iron ore in considerable quanti- 
ties, and companies have recently been formed for their develop- 
ment. Two blocks of iron ore, showing very excellent analyses, 
were exhibited at Paris by the owners of the iron mines at San 
Thiago. This company was established by English and French 
capitalists in 1877, with a capital of $140,000, and its mines are 
advantageously situated in the province of Alemtejo. Small 
quantities of iron are made by a few forges in the mountains of 
Portugal. The production of coal in Portugal is said to have 
amounted to 12,387 metric tons in 1872, since which year there are 
no statistics. In 1876 the exports of iron ore amounted to 21,568 
tons. At Paris there were several pieces of machinery and speci- 
mens of cutlery exhibited by Portugal, which showed mechanical 
skill of a high order. 

Italy is a country of considerable manufacturing enterprise. Un- 
fortunately there is scarcely any coal in her territory, and this want 
has prevented the complete development of her iron industry. She 
has an abundance of iron ores, and on the island of Elba they are 
of unsurpassed richness. The iron ores on this island and in other 
parts of Italy were used long before the Christian era. There are 
three principal iron districts in Italy additional to Elba — Lombardy, 
Piedmont, and Tuscany. In all Italy there are about 40 blast fur- 
naces, many of which, owing to the scarcity of fuel, have not recently 
been in operation. Catalan forges for smelting iron ore and bloom- 
aries for refining pig iron are largely used in Italy, their number 
being about 200. Charcoal is the principal fuel used in the furnaces, 
forges, and bloomaries, the Appenine forests furnishing the most of 
it. There are four furnaces in Italy that were built to use British 



ITALY SWITZERLAND. 77 



coke. In 1862 works for the manufacture of cemented steel were 
established at Naples, and since that date Siemens furnaces have 
been introduced at works in Lombardy and elsewhere for puddling 
iron and steel and for melting steel in crucibles. There are no large 
rolling mills in the kingdom. Owing to the scarcity of fuel, most 
of the ore mined in Italy is exported, the quantity annually sent out 
of the country exceeding 200,000 tons. The annual production of 
pig iron ranges from 20,000 to 25,000 tons, and that of wrought iron 
is about 50,000 tons. The production of steel in 1876 was 2,800 
tons. In the same year the imports of iron and steel into Italy were 
as follows : pig iron, 22,535 metric tons ; castings, 5,352 tons ; rolled 
iron, 93,713 tons; iron and steel rails, 40,227 tons ; steel, 4,853 tons. 
The exports of iron and steel are only nominal. The quantity of 
coal imported in 1876 was 1,454,542 tons, of which Great Britain 
furnished much the larger part. It will be observed that Italy is a 
large purchaser of iron, steel, and coal. Steel rails are coming into 
general use on Italian railroads, the length of which is about 5,000 
miles. Throughout the country are many foundries and machine 
shops, cutlery works, etc., and at Naples is an establishment which 
has produced in the last fourteen years 142 locomotives, 72 boilers 
for old engines, 463 passenger cars, 2,190 freight cars, and several 
bridges and viaducts, foreign iron and steel being generally used. 

Italy made a creditable but not extensive display at Paris of ma- 
chinery, edge tools, files, railway material, iron ores, etc., but none 
of her exhibits call for special notice. As a manufacturer of hard- 
ware, cutlery, tools, castings, steam engines, locomotives, and sim- 
ilar products Italy is rapidly attaining a respectable rank, but no 
probability exists that she will within any reasonable limit of time 
make all the iron and steel her people need. 

Switzerland is not noted as a manufacturer of iron or steel. The 
country contains three charcoal furnaces and one coke furnace, 
which make annually about 3,500 tons of castings and 4,000 tons 
of forge pig iron. The latter is converted in charcoal forges into 
wrought iron. There are also a few small rolling mills, which are 
supplied with pig iron from other countries. Iron ore is abundant 
in Switzerland, but coal is scarce. The Swiss have given much at- 
tention to the manufacture of cutlery, tools, and machinery, and at 
Paris their display of these articles was the subject of much favor- 
able comment. Several fine steam engines were exhibited, and some 
small hydraulic engines. Several firms exhibited files of superior 
workmanship made of imported steel, and there was also a small but 



78 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



handsome collection of pocket knives and fine cutlery. Of machines 
and machine castings there was a good display, and this also may be 
said of locomotives and all railway appliances. Of the latter there 
were seven exhibitors, including the Aarau Works, which exhibited 
a locomotive weighing twenty tons, intended for heavy grades. 

In 1877 Switzerland imported 20,279 metric tons of pig iron and 
raw steel; 14,504 tons of bar iron; 11,487 tons of iron and steel 
rails and railway sleepers ; 8,113 tons of plates ; and 22,000 tons of 
miscellaneous iron and steel products. Her exports of these com- 
modities are inconsiderable. The annual imports of coal average 
about half a million tons. Switzerland has about 1,400 miles of 
railroad. 

Greece contains very rich iron ores on the island of Seriphos, some 
of which have been exported, but it contains no iron works that are 
now in use, except perhaps a few forges. About 1870 an attempt 
to smelt these ores with native lignite resulted in failure. A col- 
lection of Greek ores was exhibited at Paris and some specimens of 
Greek machinery. Coal and lignite are mined in small quantities 
in Greece. There is no immediate probability of any increase in 
the production of either iron or coal. The country consumes but 
little iron. 

Turkey produces in charcoal furnaces and by primitive methods 
in Bosnia and Servia, and in the Lebanon mountains and elsewhere 
in her European and Asiatic territory, about 40,000 or 50,000 tons 
of iron annually. The fuel used is wholly charcoal, and the iron 
ores are of good quality. Coal is mined on the southern shore of 
the Black Sea, and the annual product is about 150,000 tons. Coal 
and lignite have been discovered in other parts of the empire, but 
like everything else of a desirable nature in that country they await 
development. The production of iron need not be expected to in- 
crease until more coal is mined and more railroads are built, as the 
supply of timber for charcoal is rapidly being exhausted in the 
neighborhood of existing iron works. Iron ore is abundant. Some 
of the Turkish iron is equal to the best Swedish. In 1877 Turkey 
imported 217,643 metric tons of coal, and imported from Great 
Britain 7,406 tons of iron and steel. Turkey in Europe contains 
about 1,000 miles of railroad, Turkey in Asia about 250 miles, and 
Roumania about 800 miles. 

Algeria is noted for its rich iron ore deposits, which have been 
worked by French capitalists for about thirty years. The principal 
mines are those of Mokta-el-Hadid, near the port of Bona, and their 



ALGERIA — AFRICA — INDIA — CHINA. 79 



product in 1877 was 370,810 tons. The company which owns the 
Mokta mines also produced in the same year 121,852 tons of coal, 
the greater part of which was exported. The Beni Saif iron ore 
mines, worked by the Soumah Company, are the next most import- 
ant in Algeria, of which there are fourteen in all. From all the 
iron ore mines of Algeria there were exported 466,026 tons in 1875 
and 455,314 tons in 1876. The exportation of Algerian ore is not 
increasing, although there is no apparent limit to the supply if un- 
derground workings be resorted to. Pig iron is made at one fur- 
nace near Bona, with native coal and coke. In Morocco good iron 
ore is found, but it is undeveloped. 

In Central Africa the natives have long made warlike and other 
implements of iron by simple but very effective processes. Ham- 
mers and chisels, swords, daggers, spear-heads, and arrow-heads are 
made of a quality deserving the highest praise. Their chains are 
said to be equal to the best English steel chains. Southern Africa 
possesses in the Transvaal extensive deposits of iron ore and coal, 
samples of which were exhibited at Paris. Some progress has been 
made in mining coal, but none in mining ore. Coal has also been 
found in Cape Colony, in the Free State of Orange, and in Natal. 
Madagascar is said to contain both iron ore and coal. All the ter- 
ritorial divisions of Western Africa are said to be rich in iron ores. 

India has made iron and steel by primitive methods from the 
earliest ages. Iron ore is found in various localities, and so also is 
coal. The government of the country, aided by British capitalists, is 
doing much to develop both of these sources of wealth, several com- 
panies having been organized to mine coal and manufacture iron. 
Many of these enterprises are now in operation, and all of them are 
said to promise successful results, but for many years to come India 
must remain a large importer of both coal and iron. In 1877 Great 
Britain sent 229,421 tons of iron and steel and 894,174 tons of coal 
to British India. The country produces about 500,000 tons of coal 
annually, and has 7,599 miles of railroad. 

China has an abundance of good iron ores and equally good coal, 
both anthracite and bituminous, all well distributed. The iron ores 
have been but slightly developed, only the most primitive methods 
for smelting and refining them being in use, blast furnaces having 
scarcely an existence. Coal is mined on a scale somewhat extensive 
for a country that has made such little use of modern mining appli- 
ances. It is estimated that the annual production of coal in China is 
about 3,000,000 metric tons, of which 1,000,000 tons are anthracite. 



80 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



The quantity of iron annually produced can not even be esti- 
mated, but it almost equals the wants of the country, as China im- 
ports but little iron or steel. At Paris there were exhibited by 
China some very fine samples of wrought iron, made from magnetic 
iron sand, and apparently equal to Swedish iron. A collection of 
plows, sickles, shears, and other tools and implements showed that 
the Chinese are not very expert in the manipulation of iron. Some 
samples of coal were exhibited. Apparently but little progress in 
the development of either their iron or coal resources may be ex- 
pected from a people who have just destroyed the only railroad 
within the boundaries of their extensive empire. If the locomo- 
tive could be introduced into every Chinese province the manufac- 
ture of iron would soon become an important Chinese industry, and 
the mining of coal would be greatly increased. In 1875 China im- 
ported from Great Britain 59,332 metric tons of coal and 1,529 tons 
of coke. Statistics of the imports of iron and steel are wanting. 

Japan, as is well 'known, is a progressive country, and is rapidly 
adopting all the arts of modern civilization. There are at present 
6Q miles of completed railroad in Japan, and 142 miles in course 
of construction, with several hundred additional miles projected. 
These railway statistics possess of themselves great significance, but 
to this must be added the recent erection of several modern blast 
furnaces and a rolling mill under the direction of English engi- 
neers. In some of the furnaces charcoal is to be used, and in others 
coke. The Japanese, however, still make use of primitive processes 
for the manufacture of iron and steel, but this is not so much the 
result of conservatism or prejudice as of necessity. The ore used 
in these processes is largely magnetic iron sand. Other ores are 
to be used in the new furnaces. The annual production of iron in 
Japan is about 10,000 tons. Coal is mined in a primitive fashion 
on the island of Yesso and on other islands in the empire, the annual 
production being about 400,000 tons. It is mostly bituminous, but 
some anthracite and lignite are found. It may reasonably be pre- 
sumed that the production of coal in Japan will increase in future 
years, as the people are disposed to adopt modern methods for its 
extraction. A block of bituminous coal from Japan was exhibited 
at Paris, as were also samples of Japanese iron ores and cutlery. 
In the manufacture of tools from native iron and steel Japanese 
mechanics are known to be both skillful and tasteful. 

In Afghanistan and Persia there are small quantities of iron made 
by the most primitive of processes. 



AUSTRALASIA — BRITISH AMERICA. 81 



The grand division of the earth's surface known as Australasia, 
which includes Australia, New Zealand, Van Dieman's Land, etc., 
has thus far produced but little iron, but in the mining of coal 
much progress has been made in New South Wales, which pro- 
duced 1,444,271 metric tons in 1877, of which 915,727 tons were 
exported. Coal mining in this colony dates from 1829. In the 
other colonies of Australasia very little coal is mined. Iron ore is 
found in New South Wales in large quantities, and furnaces and 
rolling mills have been erected. In the colony of Victoria there 
are a number of large foundries, machine shops, and rolling mills. 
In Van Dieman's Land a furnace was erected in 1875, and in New 
Zealand a furnace has also been erected. In South Australia there 
is another furnace. It is understood, however, that several of these 
enterprises have been unsuccessful. In 1877 Great Britain exported 
to her Australasian colonies 215,905 English tons of iron and steel. 
Specimens of the iron ores and coal of this part of the British Em- 
pire were exhibited at Paris, including chrome ores. In the manu- 
facture of agricultural implements, engines and boilers, and similar 
products Victoria and some other colonies have made great prog- 
ress. There are about 2,700 miles of railroad in Australasia. 

British America contains coal at its eastern extremity in Nova 
Scotia and at its western extremity in Vancouver's Island, but very 
little coal has been developed in the intervening territory. For the 
manufacture of iron, however, this country could either use char- 
coal, of which there is abundance of timber to furnish a supply, or 
coal could easily be obtained from the United States. The total 
production of coal by the mines of Nova Scotia in 1877 was 757,496 
English tons, and the production of the mines of Vancouver's Island 
in the same year was 154,052 tons. The exports of coal from Nova 
Scotia to points outside of British America amounted to 136,828 
tons in 1877, principally to the United States ; the exports from 
Vancouver's Island in the same year amounted to 139,692 tons, 
principally to the same country. The imports of coal into the Do- 
minion of Canada in the fiscal year ended June 30, 1877, amounted 
to 979,692 tons, of which the United States furnished 789,697 tons, 
Great Britain 189,965 tons, and the island of St. Pierre 30 tons. 
Iron ore of variable quality is found at various places in the Do- 
minion, but few of the efforts that have been made to develop it 
have met with success, the most successful enterprise being the works 
of " The Steel Company of Canada," which are located at London- 
derry, in Nova Scotia, and consist of three blast furnaces, a rolling 



82 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



mill, machine shops, two foundries, and an open-hearth steel plant. 
The company owns extensive ore and coal mines, and has a capital 
of $2,500,000. Its affairs are very ably managed, and every part 
of the works is constructed and operated upon the most approved 
modern principles. The whole establishment is very complete and is 
in constant operation, manufacturing pig iron, bar iron, car wheels, 
steel, etc., but it is the only complete iron-making establishment in 
the Dominion. The movement that has been inaugurated to give 
to Canada a protective tariff will do much for the iron industry of 
that country, and it need scarcely be added that in the prosperity of 
the iron and other industries of Canada this country will rejoice. 

The Dominion of Canada is reported to have made about 11,000 
tons of pig iron in 1877. In the same year it exported to the United 
States 7,755 tons of iron ore. No other statistics of production are 
attainable. Great Britain enjoys the lion's share of the British 
American import trade. In 1877 the mother country sent to Brit- 
ish America 119,504 tons of iron and steel, which was a much less 
quantity than 172,079 tons which were sent in 1875. The United 
States exported to the Dominion of Canada, according to a state- 
ment kindly supplied by Hon. J. Johnson, the Canadian Commis- 
sioner of Customs, iron and steel and manufactures of iron and steel 
to the value of $5,194,909 in the fiscal year ended June 30, 1876 ; 
$4,423,336 in the fiscal year ended June 30, 1877 ; and $4,039,579 
in the fiscal year ended June 30, 1878. The Canadian iron and 
steel exhibits at Paris were neither extensive nor specially notice- 
able. Canada has about 5,000 miles of railroad. 

Mexico has iron ore in abundance, and some of her deposits are 
of remarkable extent and richness, but her people are not enterpris- 
ing as manufacturers, nor do they have coal to stimulate them to 
engage in the manufacture of iron. There are less than a dozen 
blast furnaces and rolling mills in the country, which produce an- 
nually about 7,500 tons of iron. Mexico has about 600 miles of 
railroad. This country will probably not greatly increase its pro- 
duction of iron for many years to come. 

In 1874, the latest year for which complete statistics are at hand, 
Mexico imported all its coal from the United States, 5,660 tons ; 
5,474 tons of " wrought and unwrought iron and steel " from Great 
Britain, and none from other countries ; steam engines, machinery, 
and other iron manufactures to the value of $988,675, from the 
United States ; and machinery, hardware, and cutlery to the value 
of $799,345, from Great Britain. 



SOUTH AMERICA. 83 



South America is not wanting in either iron ore or coal. The 
United States of Colombia has long had two small charcoal fur- 
naces and a small rolling mill. Another furaace is projected. Coal 
is found near the city of Bogota and elsewhere. Chili produces 
annually about 300,000 tons of coal, but iron is not made except in 
very small quantities. The competition of British coal greatly in- 
terferes with the prosperity of the Chilian coal mines. In the past 
five years Chili has imported coal of the value of $4,000,000, of 
which Great Britain supplied 98 per cent. Peru has both coal and 
iron ore ; Ecuador has iron ore ; Bolivia has both iron ore and 
coal ; and so has the Argentine Republic — all practically undevel- 
oped. Brazil has iron ore and coal, and the government of the 
country encourages their development, but thus far but little has 
been effected in this direction. Several coal mines have been 
opened, and in the province of Minas Geraes some iron has been 
made in primitive forges. 

Brazil imported in 1877 from Great Britain 340,083 tons of coal 
and 59,164 tons of iron and steel. Chili imported 14,218 tons of 
iron and steel from Great Britain in 1875, and only 1,011 tons in 
1877. Peru imported 16,218 tons of iron and steel from Great 
Britain in 1875, and only 2,720 tons in 1877. With the exception 
of Brazil, no South American country consumes much iron and 
steel. In all South America there are about 6,000 miles of railroad. 

In the fiscal year ended June 30, 1877, the United States export- 
ed to Mexico miscellaneous manufactures of iron and steel, and 438 
tons of pig and rolled iron and steel, all valued at $649,588, and 
1,304 tons of coal, valued at $7,746 ; to the West Indies and Cen- 
tral America, miscellaneous manufactures of iron and steel, and 
3,582 tons of pig and rolled iron and steel, all valued at $1,419,- 
893, and 80,372 tons of coal, valued at $292,979 ; to South Amer- 
ica, miscellaneous manufactures of iron and steel, and 1,447 tons of 
pig and rolled iron and steel, all valued at $2,470,289, and 14,367 
tons of coal, valued at $51,838. 

SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE PARIS EXPOSITION. 

In making a general survey of the features of the Paris Ex- 
position which relate to iron and steel I am led to the conclusion 
that they presented but little that was new to the practical man who 
is engaged in the manufacture of these products. There were rep- 
resentations of progress in the dephosphorization of iron, in the 



84 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



substitution of machine for hand puddling, in the simplification and 
perfection of the open-hearth process, in the casting of steel, in the 
manufacture of wrought iron and steel directly from the ore, and in 
the application of both iron and steel to new uses, but no absolutely- 
new process for the manufacture of iron or steel was exhibited or 
described, nor were its products represented. The metallurgical 
world has apparently reached a resting place in the invention of 
new processes in the manufacture of iron and steel, and iron and 
steel makers everywhere appear to have reached the conclusion that 
in the improvement of present processes and in an extension of the 
use of iron and steel are they to find problems worthy of their atten- 
tion in the future. 

Of the whole display of iron and steel products at Paris, and of 
machinery applied to the manufacture of iron and steel or to other 
manufacturing purposes, I can not speak in terms of sufficient 
praise. The display of iron and steel products has never been 
equaled at a world's fair, while the display of machinery generally 
has only been equaled by that made at Philadelphia. The Phila- 
delphia exhibit of machinery was more extensive and more varied 
than that of Paris, and it possessed an additional advantage in 
being more generally in motion. But the Paris Exposition demon- 
strated more fully than the Philadelphia Exhibition, or any pre- 
vious international exhibition, the efficiency of machinery in all in- 
dustrial enterprises, the efforts of every progressive nation to obtain 
the best machinery for its own service, and the necessity imposed 
upon all, by their active competition with one another, to adopt 
every new device and improvement which tends to increase, perfect, 
and cheapen products. Referring particularly to the iron and steel 
exhibits, and to the explanatory and supplementary information 
which I have presented concerning them, it is clearly demonstrated 
that modern processes and modern machinery for the manufacture 
of these products are now in general use in all leading iron and steel 
making countries, and that the skill necessary to apply them is 
rapidly being equalized. No nation now has a monopoly of the 
manufacture of any kind of iron or any kind of steel, or of the use 
of any machinery necessary to their production. Some countries 
will, of course, continue to display greater enterprise than others in 
the utilization of their resources for the manufacture of iron and 
steel, but none of the leading nations of the world will lag behind 
because they have not become practically familiar with the best 
methods adapted to this utilization. 



SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE PARIS EXPOSITION. 85 



Closely allied to this subject is another fact with which the ob- 
servant visitor at Paris could not fail to be impressed, and which 
has been prominently illustrated in this report — the general distri- 
bution of good iron ores in all countries, and the equally general dis- 
tribution of mineral fuel to smelt them. Countries that were once 
supposed to contain but little good iron ore are found to possess 
large and practically inexhaustible deposits of the best of ores, and 
countries that were not known to possess coal deposits of any magni- 
tude or of good quality are found to possess almost boundless carbon- 
iferous resources. Sweden and Italy are the only two of the leading 
countries of the world that are at once rich in iron ores and poor in 
mineral fuel. Russia, Austria, and Germany have more and better 
coal than has been generally conceded to them. If Spain, Portugal, 
Turkey, India, China, Japan, and Australia shall ever attempt the 
manufacture of iron in large quantities, their progress will not be 
impeded because of a deficiency of domestic coal. Even in coun- 
tries where native coal is not of the best quality for smelting iron 
ores or refining iron, the methods now generally in use for remov- 
ing impurities or for making iron and steel with gas will be found 
to neutralize very largely this inferiority. 

A fact of much significance connected with the natural distribu- 
tion of iron ores was perhaps more fully illustrated at Paris than at 
any previous international exhibition. Owing to the marvelous 
increase in the production of Bessemer steel in late years the man- 
ganiferous and non-phosphoriferous ores of Spain, Algeria, and 
Italy have been largely drawn upon for supplies to Bessemer works 
in countries rich in other varieties of ores. These Bessemer ores 
were liberally exhibited at Paris, and they served to mark and to 
emphasize the great dependence of the Bessemer steel industries of 
Great Britain, France, Germany, and Belgium upon foreign sources 
of ore supply, and the virtual equalization of the cost of Bessemer 
ores to all these countries. 

But a fact of still greater general significance was illustrated at 
Paris in the large and varied collection of Bessemer products 
which was there exhibited. All the leading iron-making countries 
exhibited Bessemer steel, and in almost every form in which other 
kinds of steel and all kinds of iron have heretofore been used. The 
revolution which the Bessemer process has wrought in the iron trade 
was made strikingly manifest in a survey of the contributions of 
European countries, but to an American who remembered the won- 
derful development of the Bessemer industry in his own country, 



86 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



which sent no Bessemer products to Paris, these contributions were 
more impressive and more suggestive than they could be to any 
European. It is a trite saying that the age of steel has come, and 
that the manufacture of iron is giving place to that of steel, but the 
Paris Exposition showed that the progress made during the past two 
or three years in the manufacture of Bessemer steel, and open-hearth 
steel as well, is so great that statistics fail to give any proper con- 
ception of its magnitude. The London Times remarks that " the 
Bessemer process has ruined the manufactured iron trade ;" but it 
has done more than this — it has distributed among many countries 
the manufacture of Bessemer steel, and thus enabled them to supply 
more fully their own metallurgical wants, and the metallurgical 
wants of other countries, in lieu of their own previous partial de- 
pendence upon Great Britain for both iron and steel products. It 
has thus aided not only to ruin the manufactured iron trade of all 
countries, but to ruin that of Great Britain particularly, and it has 
placed a limit upon the Bessemer steel industry of Great Britain 
itself. Here is a new revolution, or a new revelation, in connection 
with the world's iron industry which was reserved for Paris to make 
clearly manifest through the abundant proofs there furnished of the 
wide distribution of the Bessemer process and the wide substitution 
of Bessemer products for those of iron and other steel processes. 
And what has been said of the Bessemer process and of the injury 
it has inflicted upon the British iron trade is applicable also in a 
large degree to the Siemens-Martin process and its modifications. 

With one exception, the Paris Exposition did not furnish any 
valuable suggestions of new uses for iron. This exception relates 
to the introduction of various systems of iron permanent way for 
railroads, in place of the wooden cross-ties and stringers which are 
now generally in use. One of these systems, Hilf's, has been adopt- 
' ed on nearly a thousand miles of railway in Germany, Austria, Bel- 
gium, and other countries. Both the stringers and the cross-ties 
are of wrought iron. Other systems, at least one of which substi- 
tutes steel for iron, are modifications of the Hilf system. It seems 
not improbable that one or two of these systems will become popular 
and even necessary in countries which do not possess an abundance 
of timber, but at present many objections are made to their adop- 
tion. It is alleged that the first cost of an iron permanent way, 
cheap as iron has become, is much greater than one of wood, and 
that it is liable to corrode, and is more rigid than wood. I did not 
notice at Paris nor in my travels that much progress had been 



SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE PARIS EXPOSITION. 87 



made in the substitution of iron for wood in the construction of 
railway cars. Concerning some other uses to which iron has been 
adapted within a comparatively recent period, I learned that iron 
is every year coming into more general use in Europe as a substi- 
tute for wood in the construction of buildings and parts of build- 
ings, in the construction of bridges, in telegraph poles, in mining 
operations, and in fencing. I would not discourage the hope that 
the use of iron for all of the purposes which have been mentioned 
will increase from year to year, but this increase must be gradual 
in all countries, and in our own country the general introduction 
of an iron permanent way must be long delayed. 

A product of economic interest and of rapidly increasing eco- 
nomic value was represented at Paris in numerous exhibits of com- 
pressed mineral fuel, or briquets, composed chiefly of inferior coal 
or coal waste, to which is added coal-tar as a cement. France, Bel- 
gium, Germany, and even Great Britain manufacture this new fuel, 
France obtaining part of her supply of the raw material from Wales, 
and finding a market for the sale of a portion of the manufactured 
product in Italy, where it is used as fuel for locomotives. Ma- 
chines for the manufacture of this fuel were also exhibited at Paris, 
much space being occupied by them in the French section. As has 
already been remarked, France annually produces about 700,000 
tons of briquets and Belgium about 500,000 tons ; Germany and 
Great Britain respectively manufacture smaller quantities. Its in- 
creased production in Europe is assured. At present it is mainly 
used upon steamships and in locomotives. In this country a suc- 
cessful attempt to manufacture compressed fuel from anthracite coal 
dust has been made on a large scale at Fort Ewen, near Rondout, 
New York, and to-day the enterprise is firmly established, the fuel, 
which is in large lumps, being supplied to steamships and locomo- 
tives. Mr. E. F. Loiseau, an American gentleman, has recently per- 
fected machinery for the economical manufacture of the same kind 
of fuel in smaller lumps, for general use. The possibilities of the 
compressed fuel manufacture are large and important, and do not 
lie wholly outside of the manufacture of iron and steel, but in this 
country the abundance and cheapness of good coal will long operate 
as an impediment to the utilization of. the dust which has accumu- 
lated or may accumulate in the vicinity of our coal mines. It may 
be added that General Manager J. E. Wootten, of the Philadelphia 
and Reading Railroad Company, has invented a grate for locomo- 
tives and stationary engines by which anthracite coal dust can be 



88 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



successfully and economically used as fuel. Several of these grates 
are in use by the company. The only American locomotive exhib- 
ited at Paris was built and sent by this company and was furnished 
with one of these grates, by which it can be operated with either 
coal dust or lump coal, without any change in the grate or fire-box. 
It was successfully tested on several French railroads, and has 
since been taken to Switzerland, where it has given great satisfac- 
tion in the use of the fuel of that country. From Switzerland it is 
to be taken to Italy. 

During my stay in Paris it was my good fortune to be present at 
a meeting in that city of the Iron and Steel Institute of Great Brit- 
ain. This body is composed of several hundred of the leading 
metallurgists of the world, a majority being iron and steel manu- 
facturers of England, Scotland, and Wales. At its meetings, which 
are held at least twice a year, are discussed scientific questions of 
the greatest importance to all iron and steel manufacturers, and to 
these discussions may be justly attributed much of the progress that 
has been made in the manufacture of iron and steel in all countries 
since the establishment of the Institute in 1869. Such men as Bes- 
semer, Samuelson, the Duke of Devonshire, Bell, Whitwell, Snelus, 
Mushet, Siemens, Menelaus, Adamson, Akerman, Tunner, Wedding, 
Gruner, Jordan, Schneider, Fritz, and Holley have placed iron and 
steel manufacturers everywhere under heavy obligations to them 
for freely giving to the world the results of their patient studies 
and laborious experiments in connection with the work of blast 
furnaces, rolling mills, and steel works. At the Paris meeting there 
was an unusually large attendance of the members of the Insti- 
tute, and the papers read were of an instructive and valuable char- 
acter. I earnestly commend to my countrymen who are engaged in 
the manufacture of iron and steel the example of the Iron and Steel 
Institute of Great Britain. All proper agencies which now exist 
for the acquisition and dissemination of information necessary to the 
continued scientific development of our iron and steel industries 
should be strengthened and perfected. In these industries at home 
as well as abroad science rules the day and the hour; old methods 
have passed or are rapidly passing away ; and the utmost economy, 
skill, and technical knowledge are essential to success. Much as 
we have already learned — much as we have ourselves invented — I 
assure American manufacturers of iron and steel that we can yet 
learn from our fellow- craftsmen in other countries, and that we must 
learn from them if we would equal all of their best achievements. 



CAUSES OF THE UNIVERSAL BUSINESS DEPRESSION. 89 



CAUSES OF THE UNIVERSAL BUSINESS DEPRESSION. 

Leaving the Paris Exposition, I now turn to a consideration of 
the present condition of the European iron and steel industries. 
First, however, it is proper that some notice should be taken of the 
present industrial condition of all countries which are largely devo- 
ted to manufactures. 

That the manufacturing industries of leading European countries, 
as well as of the United States, have been depressed for many years 
is news to no reader of this report. This depression has had various 
causes, some immediate and others remote, and it has not had its 
beginning at the same time in all countries ; but, whatever its 
causes, and whether early or late its beginning, it has reached all 
manufacturing countries, and through its influence upon them it 
has affected the prosperity of the whole world. Europe, being more 
exclusively devoted to manufactures than the United States, and 
having a dense population, has suffered the most from this depres- 
sion ; the United States, being mainly an agricultural country, with 
a population widely distributed, and with manufactures which have 
been built up for the supply of the home market rather than the 
foreign market, and have been protected at home from unlimited 
foreign competition, has suffered the least, and is .the first country to 
begin to recover from its effects. 

The inquiry is naturally suggested whether the universal depres- 
sion has been created by the numerous wars of the past few years," 
particularly by the civil war in the United States from 1861 to 
1865, the war between Prussia and Austria in 1866, the war be- 
tween Germany and France in 1870 and 1871, and the war between 
Russia and Turkey in 1877 and 1878. Undoubtedly these wars 
influenced unfavorably the manufacturing industries of many coun- 
tries, by- first partially arresting their healthy activity and after- 
wards unduly stimulating their development. In the United States, 
Austria, and Germany this forcing of manufacturing activity was 
accomplished largely through the influence of an increase in the 
currency, itself a result of war ; but neither the recent wars, nor the 
inflation of the currency which accompanied some of them, will 
sufficiently account for the depression and distress with which the 
civilized world is to-day so familiar. 

First among additional causes may unquestionably be placed the 
influence of machinery in cheapening and increasing manufactured 
products. By means of the mechanical inventions of the past 



90 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



twenty years manufacturing nations have attained a productive ca- 
pacity in excess of the consumptive capacity of both civilized and 
half- civilized nations. This is true of manufactures of cotton, silk, 
and woolen goods ; and it is especially true of manufactures of iron 
and steel, in which must be included all railway appliances. This 
development of manufacturing facilities would have taken place if 
there had been no wars, for the invention of the steam engine, of 
railroads, and of the magnetic telegraph, and the discovery of gold 
in California and Australia gave such an impetus to the world's 
progress that improvements in labor-saving machinery, for the sup- 
ply of new wants and to meet new conditions of civilization, were 
certain to follow. 

Next among the causes of world-wide depression must be placed 
the slackening of the demand for new railroads. For a period of 
about ten years prior to 1873 all of the leading countries of the 
world and many of the second and third rate countries were ac- 
tively engaged in building railroads, to afford means of communica- 
tion between the several parts of their territories or to develop their 
latent resources. Many countries which were rich in enterprise but 
poor in ready money were assisted by the money-lenders of other 
countries to build these roads. While this work was in progress 
many branches of manufactures and of mechanical and engineering 
construction were liberally drawn upon for materials and labor, and 
to meet this demand the erection and equipment of new iron and 
steel works, locomotive works, car works, and minor industrial es- 
tablishments were rendered necessary. In 1873 and immediately 
succeeding years it was found that as many of these railroads had 
been constructed as were required by the necessities of the countries 
building them, or as they were able to pay for, or could borrow 
money to pay for, and with the total or partial cessation of the de- 
mand for new railroads a check was at once given to all the indus- 
tries which had been built up or enlarged in expectation of a con- 
tinuance of this demand. Millions of capital were found to have 
been unprofitably invested ; armies of skilled and unskilled work- 
ingmen were thrown out of employment ; and small industries, de- 
pendent upon the prosperity of the greater industries which had 
been abnormally stimulated, either perished outright or were able 
to maintain only a sickly existence. 

The railway statistics of Great Britain, Germany, and the United 
States are sufficiently illustrative of the "stimulating influence upon 
the iron trade and related industries of the fever for building new 



CAUSES OF THE UNIVERSAL BUSINESS DEPRESSION. 91 



railroads that has existed in late years, and of the depressing effect 
of the subsidence of this fever. From 1855 to 1873 the railway 
mileage of Great Britain increased from 8,335 miles to 16,082 
miles, or almost doubled. At the beginning of 1878 the mileage 
had increased to only 17,109 miles. The railway mileage of Ger- 
many increased from 4,863 miles in 1855 to 8,637 miles in 1865 ; 
to 17,372 miles in 1876; and to 18,828 miles at the beginning of 
1878. The decline in 1876 and 1877 was continued in 1878. The 
railway mileage of the United States increased from 18,374 miles 
in 1855 to 35,085 miles in 1865, almost doubling, the civil war pre- 
venting a greater increase; but in 1873 the large mileage of 1865 
was fully doubled, the number of miles then in operation being 
70,311. In one year alone, 1871, no less than 7,608 miles were 
constructed. But from 1873 to 1877 only 8,897 miles were con- 
structed, an average of a little more than 2,200 miles in four years. 
The average for the eight years from 1865 to 1873 was over 4,400 
miles annually. The mileage for 1878 was about 2,600 miles. 

To show how rapidly the iron industry alone was developed in the 
years immediately preceding the beginning of the present depression 
I give the statistics of the world's production of pig iron in each of 
the years 1855, 1872, and 1873, as follows : 1855, 6,889,906 English 
tons ; 1872, 14,470,358 tons ; 1873, 14,706,459 tons. The produc- 
tion of 1855 it is seen was more than doubled in 1872, a period of 
only seventeen years. This progress could not be expected to con- 
tinue, and accordingly we find that in 1873 the production was only 
slightly in excess of that of 1872. In 1873 production reached its 
maximum, and since then it has steadily declined, the figures given 
in the beginning of this report showing a present annual production 
of only 13,807,725 tons. Stated more emphatically, the annual 
production of pig iron which more than doubled between 1855 
and 1872 has declined almost a million tons from 1873 to 1878. 

While the fever for building railroads was everywhere at its 
height another influence was actively at work to assist in destroying 
the prosperity of the iron industry by destroying to a large extent 
the demand for iron itself. A revolution involving the general sub- 
stitution of steel for iron had been commenced, and so popular did 
it become that all the leading countries were soon engaged in pro- 
moting it. The Bessemer process and the open-hearth process for 
converting iron into steel at first helped only to meet a universal de- 
mand for both iron and steel, but when the merits of these processes 
became fully known, and works devoted to them were established 



92 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



in many places, they gradually wrought a diminution in the hun- 
ger for iron, especially iron rails, and contributed greatly to pre- 
cipitate the depression in the iron industry, and in all industries 
more or less dependent upon it. The new processes not only ren- 
dered useless hundreds of iron establishments which had been called 
into existence by the wants of new railroads and the exigencies of 
war, but they gave to the world products of greater durability than 
iron at approximately the same cost, thus decreasing the demand 
for iron ore, coal, and other raw materials which are common to 
the manufacture of both iron and steel. They did more than this : 
they almost wholly destroyed the large demand that had existed 
for years for finished iron and for heavy iron machinery for the 
construction of blast furnaces and iron rolling mills. 

We have here four leading causes of the world-wide business de- 
pression of the past few years : destructive wars ; the general sub- 
stitution during the past twenty years of labor-saving machinery 
and of more rapid processes of manufacture ; the culmination of 
the fever for building new railroads ; and, lastly, the partial destruc- 
tion of the world's iron industry by the revolution created by the 
introduction of the Bessemer and open-hearth processes. These 
causes of depression have operated with almost equal force in coun- 
tries engaged in war and in countries which were not so engaged ; 
in countries which had an inflated currency and in countries 
which did not have it ; in countries largely engaged in manufac- 
tures and in countries only slightly engaged in them. But, of all 
the countries visited by the hard times of the past few years, those 
least injuriously affected and possessing to-day the brightest pros- 
pects for an industrial future are the two which have most pro- 
tected their home industries, the two great republics, France and 
the United States. 

I now reach the proposed inquiry into the present condition of 
the iron and steel industries of Europe. 

PRESENT CONDITION OF THE EUROPEAN IRON TRADE. 

After the Austrian panic of 1873 the building of railroads in the 
Austrian Empire received a severe check, the production of pig iron 
and iron rails materially declined, and the imports of all iron and 
steel also greatly declined. The Bessemer steel industry of Austria 
has been very slowly developed, but its development has almost 
sufficed to destroy the Austrian iron rail trade. In 1878 the country 



PRESENT CONDITION OF THE EUROPEAN IRON TRADE. 93 



had not recovered from the depression which began in 1873, but it 
was adhering, and has since determined to adhere, to its protective 
tariff, through which its iron and steel manufacturers are supplying 
the limited demand that exists for their products, and its other 
manufacturers are secured the virtual possession of the home market. 
The results of the business depression have been far more disas- 
trous in Germany than in Austria. For about two years after the 
close in 1871 of her war with France, Germany was prosperous. 
Labor was in demand, and wages and prices advanced. But in 
1873 symptoms of a decided reaction were manifested, and in that 
year the prosperity of the German iron and steel industries culmi- 
nated, and it has since continued steadily to decline. This reac- 
tion would not have been so severe as it has been if the German 
Government, in an excess of generosity which is unaccountable, had 
not at the beginning of 1877 removed all duties on foreign iron and 
steel, thus increasing the severity of foreign competition at a time 
when domestic manufacturers of iron and steel were struggling with 
other causes of trade depression. A German statistical authority 
last year summarized as follows some of the consequences to the 
German iron trade of the reaction which commenced in 1873. 

Between 1872 and 1876 the number of iron mines in operation in Germany, 
including the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, declined from 1,341 to 1,026, and 
the number of miners from 39,421 to 28,138. Within the same period the 
number of furnaces in blast fell from 348 to 297, and the workmen employed 
from 26,111 to 20,500. Between April, 1873, and April, 1877, the number of 
workmen employed by 22 of the principal companies engaged in the iron 
trade (excluding Krupp) fell from 27,700 to 14,600. Within the same period 
the value of the stock of the Phoenix Company fell from 16,200,000 marks to 
4,860,000 marks ; of the Horde Company from 15,000,000 marks to 3,210,000 
marks; of the Bochum Company from 15,000,000 marks to 3,375,000 marks; 
of the Dortmund Union Company from 41,400,000 marks to 2,070,000 marks; 
and of the Donnersmarkhutte Company from 18,000,000 marks to 3,906,000 
marks. Of 32 companies, whose united capital amounted to £15,600,000, only 
six showed any dividend whatever for the year 1876, and the aggregate ac- 
counts published for that period showed a balance of loss on the year's opera- 
tions of £359,000 on that capital, as compared with a loss of £195,000 for the 
previous year. 

A consular report to the United States Government in May, 
1878, stated that in Westphalia at that time all manufacturers 
were "living on their capital, working away with yearly losses, 
waiting for the arrival of better times." Another consular report 



94 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



from Brandenburg, written about the same time, stated that " the 
returns of the great railway companies for the first quarter of 
the year show again diminished receipts, both for goods and pas- 
sengers, and the stockholders in some cases will receive no semi- 
annual dividend." A German newspaper of recent date contains 
the following statement : " The Borsig Locomotive and Machinery 
Works, one of the proudest monuments of the iron trade of Ger- 
many, are, it is reported, about to be closed for an indefinite period. 
For some time past they have had to be kept going out of savings, 
and this the trustee of the Borsig estate declines to continue to do 
any longer. The works have been conducted at a loss for so many 
years in succession that they threaten to swallow up the entire 
estate." It need scarcely be added that both wages and the prices 
of manufactured products have greatly fallen in Germany since 
1873. In the beginning of that year, it is stated, a passenger 
locomotive would bring £3,420, and is now worth only £2,225 ; first- 
class passenger cars have fallen from £750 to £450 ; second-class, 
from £712 to £420; third-class, from £402 to £260; fourth-class, 
from £309 to £220. While in 1873 German manufacturers were 
called on to supply 332 locomotives, 924 passenger cars, and 4,006 
freight cars, the orders in 1878 embraced only 68 locomotives, 336 
passenger cars, and 1,901 freight cars. The depression in all man- 
ufacturing industries was supposed to be at its height in 1878. 
Many workmen were unemployed, and the general distress was 
very great, but this the government was endeavoring to alleviate. 

The wonderful recuperative power which France displayed after 
the close of the war with Germany was illustrated in the revival of 
her iron and steel industries, but of late much difficulty has been 
experienced in maintaining the steel as well as iron establishments 
of France in operation, and but for the strongly protective policy 
of the country, which has many forms, the difficulty would have 
been much increased, and financial and social distress would have 
been general. But France not only maintains high duties on 
foreign manufactures : she still further protects her home manu- 
factures by doing her utmost to furnish them with employment. 
The building of railroads, for instance, has been greatly promoted 
by the government, and in the supply of rails and other material 
for new and already constructed railroads it is insisted that home 
products shall be preferred. The close relations which the gov- 
ernment sustains toward the railroads makes it possible to have its 
wishes respected. Notwithstanding the help of the government, 



PRESENT CONDITION OF THE EUROPEAN IRON TRADE. 95 



however, many iron and steel works of France, chiefly iron rail 
mills and blast furnaces, were not employed in 1878. Prices have 
fallen to a very low standard, Bessemer steel rails having recently 
been reduced from $40 to $35 a ton, and ordinary bars at Paris to 
1471 francs, or $28.47 a ton. The wages of labor are also very low. 
A French journal which is recognized as an authority stated at the 
beginning of 1878 that " production is beyond consumption ; pro- 
duction has been too rapid, and must wait until an equilibrium 
has been established." It is worthy of note that the French iron 
and steel and other industries were not stimulated into activity by 
an inflated currency, as was partly the case in Austria and Ger- 
many, but that they have reached the point of development stated 
by the French journalist in defiance of a positive contraction of 
the currency, resulting from the payment of the heavy indemnity 
to Germany. 

French iron and steel makers have had great natural disadvan- 
tages to contend with. Although there is no scarcity of native ore 
and coal, their quality is not usually the best that could be desired. 
The coal is generally very impure and requires to be washed before 
it is coked; the ore is not well adapted to the manufacture of steel. 
Large quantities of both coal and ore are imported for use in 
French iron and steel works, and owing to inland transportation 
their original cost is greatly enhanced. It is only in consequence 
of low wages and long hours and by the practice of the utmost 
economy in all details that France is enabled to manufacture iron 
and steel at prices approximating those which prevail in neigh- 
boring countries. 

The Belgian iron and steel industries were not so generally de- 
pressed in 1878 and immediately preceding years as those of Aus- 
tria or Germany or Great Britain, the degree of depression they ex- 
perienced corresponding more nearly to that of the French iron 
and steel industries. With a great effort, and with the help of or- 
ders from the Belgian Government itself, nearly all of the iron and 
steel works of the kingdom, with the exception of blast furnaces, 
were kept in operation, although many were not operated to their 
full capacity. It has been partly through frequent reductions in 
wages that the Belgian ironmasters have kept their works in fair 
activity, and have been enabled, as has been officially stated by the 
secretary to the British Legation at Brussels, " to buy pig iron in 
England, pay for freight, and deliver the same iron manufactured 
into beams and girders in the most central parts of England, or 



96 THE IKON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



even in the heart of the iron districts, at a lower price than it can 
be made by English firms on the spot." Belgium will continue to 
be a formidable competitor with other countries in supplying the 
iron and steel markets of the world. 

The iron and steel industries of Russia have not suffered from 
over-production, as they have not in late years fully supplied the 
home market. The recent purchase in the United States by Russia 
of four iron steamships and forty locomotives indicates this truth 
very plainly, if other statistics of Russian imports did not. Rus- 
sian iron and steel manufacturers have had much to contend with 
in the poverty of the people, in the unsettled political condition of 
Russia, in the lack of sufficient means of communication, in the 
small consumption of iron and steel except for railway and military 
purposes, and in the want of skilled workmen, especially for the 
development of the coal deposits of the country. The inducements 
to embark in the manufacture of iron and steel are not such as 
usually exist in other civilized countries. Russia is not conspicu- 
ously a manufacturing country, although she has certainly made 
rapid advances in late years in supplying her own wants. Her 
export trade in manufactured products is very small, and her 
imports are large. I do not look for Russia to recover rapidly 
from the effects of her war with Turkey, but she may be expected 
to strive hard to supply her own wants for iron, steel, and other 
manufactured products, and to exhibit a constantly diminishing 
demand for like products of foreign manufacture. 

There have of late been many financial failures in the ranks of 
Swedish iron and steel manufacturers, and many works have been 
closed. Production has been practically stationary for years, al- 
though the number of modern iron and steel works has in the 
meantime been increased, especially Bessemer steel works. But 
other countries can make Bessemer steel cheaper than Sweden, and 
but little of this product that she makes is exported, and she makes 
but little. With the increased use of Bessemer and open-hearth 
steel in other countries the demand for Swedish iron has declined, 
even for her best brands for conversion into crucible steel. Swedish 
iron and steel makers are thus placed between two fires ; they are 
deprived of a portion of the home market through the absence of 
protective duties, and they can not make either iron or steel at 
prices sufficiently low to enable them to become formidable com- 
petitors with other makers in foreign markets. I can see but little 
prospect for an improvement in the Swedish iron and steel indus- 



PRESENT CONDITION OF THE EUROPEAN IRON TRADE. 97 



tries, and none whatever so long as the Swedish tariff remains as 
it is. 

The Italian and Spanish iron and steel industries are not of suf- 
ficient importance to call for further remark concerning their pres- 
ent condition than to state that, small as they are, they are not 
equal to the supply of the home demand for iron and steel. Other 
countries, however, will probably not be called upon to supply large 
quantities of these products to these countries in the near future, 
for neither country is prosperous, both having suffered greatly from 
political troubles and from the want of that industrial enterprise 
which characterizes the northern countries of Europe. In supply- 
ing iron ore to more enterprising nations both Italy and Spain will 
be likely to become more prominent from year to year. Norway, 
Switzerland, Portugal, and Turkey will not make much iron or 
steel, nor will they need much from any source. 

The tide in the prosperity of the British iron and steel industries 
has ebbed with the refusal or inability of other countries to buy 
British iron and steel in the large quantities that were a few years 
ago required. The exports of these products have steadily declined 
from 3,382,762 tons in 1872 to 2,299,223 tons in 1878, and their 
value has declined from £37,731,239 in 1873, when the highest 
prices were obtained, to £18,393,974 in 1878. In 1870 the exports 
of British rails and rail fastenings amounted to 1,059,392 tons; in 
1878 they amounted to 441,384 tons. During the years intervening 
between 1872 and 1878 Great Britain greatly expanded her Besse- 
mer steel trade, and the decline in the aggregate quantity and value 
of her iron and steel exports is therefore all the more significant. 
As a result of this decline, many of her blast furnaces and rolling 
mills have been closed, and not a few of their owners have been 
bankrupted. The iron rail trade of Wales and Cleveland has 
been pronounced by British writers to be " dead." Of 6,662 pud- 
dling furnaces from which returns had been obtained at the close 
of 1878 there were only 3,616 in operation. Of 977 blast furnaces 
existing at the close of the same year there were only 459 in blast. 
The production of pig iron in Great Britain attained its maxi- 
mum in 1872, when 6,741,929 tons were made ; in 1878 the pro- 
duction fell to about 6,300,000 tons, and the stocks of pig iron 
on hand at the close of the year amounted to 679,000 tons in 
Scotland, and to 337,337 tons in Cleveland. In 1873 the Cleve- 
land district manufactured 324,420 tons of iron rails; in 1878 only 
21,000 tons were manufactured. The price of Scotch pig iron fell 



98 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



from 145s. in 1873 to 42s. 3d. in 1878, which was the lowest price 
reached during the past twenty-six years. It was stated at the 
close of the year that " undoubtedly the year 1878 was the most 
gloomy and unsatisfactory ever experienced by the iron trade of 
Scotland." The price of good forge pig iron in Cleveland had 
fallen to 34s. 6d., or $8.40, in December, 1878. Alluding to this 
price, an English technical journal has remarked that "it does not 
require a very powerful intellect to establish the stern pitiless fact 
that at such a price the manufacture of pig is carried on at an 
infinitesimal profit — if, indeed, at any profit at all." The price 
of best Staffordshire bar iron fell from £16 15s. in 1873 to £7 10s. 
in September, 1878. The struggle for existence is so severe in the 
British iron trade that the Cleveland ironmasters have made serious 
inroads upon the pig iron trade of Scotland, having supplied Scotch 
consumers with 303,176 tons in 1878, and it is announced that they 
"are prepared to make further sacrifices to keep up the deliveries 
into Scotland." 

The London Times, in its issue for January 3, 1879, forcibly pre- 
sented in the following summary the rapid development of the iron 
and steel industries of Great Britain during the past few years, and 
their present condition. 

The aggregate output of Bessemer steel in the United Kingdom during 1878 
has not been short of 850,000 tons, while of open-hearth or Siemens steel the 
production has been at least 150,000 tons more, making a total output, in 
round figures, of about 1,000,000 tons of steel ; whereas in 1870 the production 
of both was under 230,000 tons. During 1878 new steel works have been put 
into operation at Rhymney and other places, and considerable additions are 
now being made to existing works in different parts of the country. As Bes- 
semer steel works increase and multiply, so must finished iron works diminish 
in value and in number; and it is of considerable moment that this should be 
better understood than it is at the present time. The finished iron trade of 
this country came to the front with extraordinarily large and rapid strides. 
In 1860 there were only 208 works for the manufacture of finished iron in the 
United Kingdom. In 1864 this number was increased to 248; in 1872, to 
276 ; in 1874, to 298 ; and in 1877, to 312. The number of puddling furnaces 
employed in these works increased from 3,462 in 1860 to 6,338 in 1864, and 
7,311 in 1872 ; but in the years 1874 and 1877 the number showed a slight 
decrease, owing to the growing depression of trade. Of rolling mills at work 
in the United Kingdom, the number increased from 439 in 1861 to 866 in 
1871, and 942 in 1876. This development was, of course, induced by the de- 
mand for rails and plates made upon us by other countries up to the close of 
the year 1873, when our former customers began more generally not only to 
supply themselves but to become our rivals in neutral markets. Within 15 



PRESENT CONDITION OF THE EUROPEAN IRON TRADE. 99 



years the resources of production in the manufactured iron trade of the United 
Kingdom increased to the extent of 2,467,000 tons, an increase far in excess of 
any probable demands. Of the 104 new finished iron works # erected between 
1860 and 1877 many have now been closed for three or four years, and others 
are falling into this category almost every day. In the North of England 
fully a million and a half sterling invested in finished iron works has been 
yielding no return for upwards of three years ; and in Wales probably a larger 
capital has been altogether unproductive. In both districts many works are 
valuable only for the old bricks and scrap iron to be obtained by their demo- 
lition. 

The production of pig iron in Great Britain has been maintained 
at almost the standard of 1872 because of the very low prices at 
which it has been possible to manufacture it, thus permitting its 
exportation in large quantities to Germany, Belgium, and other 
countries. The decline in the British iron and steel exports has 
been in manufactured iron. To send abroad raw or half manufac- 
tured iron products, with a constantly declining demand for finished 
iron products, is a condition of the British iron trade which brings 
the least pecuniary profit with the least employment of skilled 
labor but with the largest consumption of native wealth. 

Nor is the Bessemer steel manufacture of Great Britain prosper- 
ous. It is suffering to-day from over-production. In destroying the 
British iron rail trade it is not clear that it has not commenced to 
prey upon itself. Bessemer steel rails are now sold at the same 
prices as good iron rails, a Sheffield firm having recently accepted 
an order for 25,000 tons of steel rails for the Northeastern Rail- 
way Company at £4 9s. 6cl., or $21.78. Competition between the 
owners of Bessemer establishments in Great Britain is so severe 
that already many of these establishments have been virtually 
closed. I have just read in an English journal that "it is a fact 
that there are works which have not rolled a single rail since 
Christmas." One result is certain to follow the severe struggle 
that is now in progress in Great Britain : not only iron rails but 
also all forms of manufactured iron and even crucible steel of 
British manufacture must be driven more and more from British 
and foreign markets. 

The extraordinary development of the British iron and steel in- 
dustries which has been noted has been almost equaled by the rapid- 
ity with which other British industries have been developed since 
the close of our civil war. These other industries, too, have suffered 
from the effects of over-production as severely as the iron and steel 
industries. During 1878 the total number of business failures in 



100 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



Great Britain was 15,059, an increase of 4,037 in comparison with 
1877. In the undue development of British manufacturing indus- 
tries and in the subsequent misfortunes which have overtaken them 
an inflated currency has had no part, and until recently a protec- 
tive tariff has had no friends. 

THE PRESENT CONDITION OF LABOR IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES. 

Inseparably connected with the condition of the iron and steel 
and other manufacturing industries of Europe is the condition of 
European labor. In proportion as these industries have been de- 
pressed so has labor lost its opportunities or gone without sufficient 
reward. The working population of Europe which is employed to- 
day is in receipt of wages which compel the severest economy in 
personal and household expenses, and which are, with few excep- 
tions, lower than the wages paid to them before the late era of in- 
dustrial activity and speculation. The number of the unemployed, 
and of those who earn a precarious subsistence in employments to 
which they are unaccustomed, is in most European countries larger 
than has been known for many years, and is especially large in 
Germany and Great Britain. But for the maintenance on the Con- 
tinent of large standing armies, which withdraw many thousands of 
skilled and unskilled workingmen from competition with their fel- 
lows, the number there would be so great as to endanger the public 
peace. A few illustrations will suffice to show the present condition 
of European labor in both manufacturing and agricultural districts, 
but particularly in the former. 

In France, in May, 1878, the average daily wages of carpen- 
ters were SI ; of masons, 75 cents ; of painters, 95 cents ; of shoe- 
makers, 60 cents ; of tailors, 75 cents ; of women employed in vari- 
ous mechanical occupations, from 35 to 60 cents ; and of children 
similarly employed, from 10 to 35 cents. At Creusot, where the 
highest wages on the Continent are paid to ironworkers, the net 
wages of puddlers in 1878 were about $2 a day, and helpers re- 
ceived about 75 cents. At the blast furnaces at Saint Chamond in 
1878 an ash wheeler received 50 cents a day, an ordinary laborer 
65 cents, a fireman 70 cents, and engineers 70 to 90 cents. The 
average annual earnings of French colliers in 1872 were only 980 
francs, or $189.14, and their earnings are now still less. In 1877 
the French Mining Department gave the average wages earned by 
the men employed in all the coal pits and iron mines in France as 



PRESENT CONDITION OF EUROPEAN LABOR. 101 



being from about Is. 9d. to 2s. 4d., or 43 to 57 cents, per day of 
about 11 hours. In the same year Mr. Frederick Brittain, an Eug- 
lish commissioner to inquire into the rates of wages then paid in 
France, reported that at an iron works visited by him he found the 
wages of the preceding six months to have averaged 3s. 6 id., or 86 
cents, per man per day of 11 hours; at several other iron works he 
found that the wages ranged from 2s. 6d. to 4s. per day of 11 hours. 
In the machine shops at Lille he found that the wages paid were 2s. 
2|d., or 54 cents, per day for laborers, and 3s. 4d. to 3s. 9d. per day 
for mechanics, the day being 11 hours long. Since 1877 wages 
have been reduced in France, but they are still higher than are 
paid in most Continental countries. A recent consular report to 
our own government places the average daily wages in France at 
45 cents, and the amount of the annual revenue of a representative 
French family, composed of father, mother, and five children, one 
of which is old enough to work, at $179.20. Its average annual 
expense is estimated at $167, or $3.21 a week. 

During the first half of 1878 the average daily wages of colliers 
in Belgium were 2.86 francs, or 55 cents, per day, which was a de- 
cline from 3.08 francs a year previously. The average wages of 
skilled labor in Belgian iron works had increased in 1872 to 11 
francs per day of 11 hours, but in 1876 they had fallen to 5 francs, 
and in 1877 to 4 francs, and even to 3i francs. The steam hammer 
man receives 4 francs per day, and the puddler who pays his own 
help receives about $2 per ton of puddled bars. The secretary of 
the British Legation at Brussels reports that " a Belgian laborer 
works from Monday morning at six o'clock until Saturday night at 
twelve without intermission, and lives on food on which a British 
laborer would starve." 

In Russia the wages of a peasant usually range from 14 to 37 
cents a day, and the wages of his wife or daughter from 7 to 14 
cents. At Odessa the price of labor has reached the extraordinary 
height of 50 cents a day. Throughout Russia the average rate of 
peasants' wages is 25 cents a day for men, 121 cents for women, 
and 37 \ cents for a man and his horse and wagon. The products 
of the farm bring proportionate prices : a sheep 25 cents ; a cow 
$3 to $4 ; and a horse $5. The luxuries of civilization are almost 
unknown to the peasants and working classes of Russia. 

The wages of skilled workingmen in Austria have been reduced 
about 20 per cent, during the last four years. The silk industry 
furnishes employment to many Austrian men and women. In 



102 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



1871, when Austria was prosperous, first-class cocoon winders 
received $1.80 per week of 72 hours, and raw silk winders received 
$1 per week of 60 hours. The Austrian State Railways employ 
over 12,000 men, women, and children. The wages of the men 
vary from 36 cents to $1.09 a day ; the average wages paid to the 
women are 20 cents a day, and to children 16 cents a day. 

In Westphalia, in Germany, the wages of general workmen in 
iron and sheet ware works in 1875 were $4.50 a week, and the 
wages of day laborers were $3.80 a week ; in iron foundries mould- 
ers received $4.64 a week and day laborers $3.90 a week, the week 
being composed of six days of 11 hours each. Agricultural labor- 
ers throughout Germany received from 31 cents to 53 cents daily 
in 1878 if men, and if women about one-third less. Men laborers 
in towns received from 50 to 55 cents a day ; women from 25 to 
37 i cents; workmen employed on public works from '40 to 57 
cents. In the Thuringian States carpenters, blacksmiths, masons, 
and bricklayers received from 55 to 62J cents ; tailors from 45 to 
50 cents ; railway brakemen from 40 to 45 cents, with an additional 
allowance of about $5 a month for mileage. In all the cases men- 
tioned boarding is not included. In Brunswick, Germany, skilled 
workmen received from 48 to 76 cents a day, without board. At 
Bremen wages per week were as follows : shoemakers, $2.50 to 
$3.75 ; carpenters, $3.75 to. $5 ; tailors, $5 to $6.25 ; masons, $3.75 
to $5; blacksmiths, $2.50 to $3; joiners, $2.50 to $3. The present 
rates of wages in Germany are from 15 to 20 per cent, lower than in 
1876. As an illustration of the distress which prevails, the official 
statement has been made that the burgomaster at Coburg employed 
200 laborers during the winter and spring of 1878 in laying out 
and grading an addition to the city cemetery, and paid each man 
26 cents as daily wages upon which to keep body and soul together. 

In Italy the average wages of masons, carpenters, smiths, and 
other mechanics are about 6d cents per day of 12 hours, the mini- 
mum being "50 cents and the maximum $1.20. Ordinary laborers 
on government railways are paid from 50 to 60 cents a day ; con- 
ductors, engineers, and other railway employees are paid liberal 
wages. Silk spinners (women) are paid from 18 to 24 cents per day 
of 13 hours, including lodging but not board. Agricultural labor- 
ers throughout Italy receive from 25 to 40 cents a day, without 
board, except in harvest, when they are paid from 60 to 70 cents 
per day of 15 hours. 

In Great Britain the wages of labor have been repeatedly reduced 



PRESENT CONDITION OF EUROPEAN LABOR. 103 



during the past few years, and every week brings us telegraphic 
intelligence of still further reductions. One of the latest dispatches 
by cable states that "the reduction of 12J per centum in the 
wages of which the Fife and Clackmannan colliers have received 
notice will make their average wages three shillings a day, which 
is lower than for many years ; but no serious opposition to the re- 
duction is anticipated." In October, 1878, the earnings of Scotch 
miners averaged 2s. 9d. a day. 

The wages of British colliers, iron miners, and iron workers are 
lower now than they were before the recent rise in prices. The 
wages of Northumbrian coal miners are 15 per cent, below the level 
from which they had advanced, and a further reduction is impend- 
ing. In Durham the price now paid per ton for mining coal is Is. 
10d., and in 1871, before the rise, the price was 2s. a ton. Notwith- 
standing this reduction, notice of a still further reduction of 20 per 
cent, has been given to the Durham miners, and the surface laborers 
at the mines have been notified that a reduction of 12 i per cent, 
will be made in their wages, coupled, however, with a reservation 
that the wages of able-bodied men shall not be brought below 2s. 
6cl., or 61 cents, a day. In the iron-mining industry in the North of 
England, wages which in 1871 were fixed at the rate of lid. per 
ton rose to Is. 4d. per ton in 1873, and have now fallen to 10d., 
from which it is probable that a penny per ton will shortly be 
taken. As far back as the summer of 1877 it was announced that 
the South Staffordshire coal trade was so depressed that but little 
more than half time was being made at the collieries, and that the 
earnings of the colliers did not average more than from 12s. to 14s. 
a week. The situation is worse to-day. The price of puddling 
in England is now 7s. 6d., or $1.82, a ton, and about one- third 
of this sum the puddler pays to the helper. In 1873 the price 
of puddling was 13s. 3d. a ton; the reduction to 7s. 6d. is therefore 
almost 44 per cent. In the United States the price of puddling, if 
I am correctly informed, is nowhere to-day lower than the highest 
English price in 1873, and at Pittsburgh it is $5 a ton, or almost 
three times the present English price. Other branches of British 
industry than the coal and iron trades have experienced a depres- 
sion so severe that the wages of workingmen employed in them 
have also been frequently and greatly reduced, but I refrain from 
giving details. In their efforts to force down wages the masters 
have been strenuously resisted by their workmen, but the former 
have been successful in every contest. During 1878 there were 



104 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



no fewer than 277 strikes in Great Britain; in 1877 there were 181. 
Much destitution and suffering have prevailed among British 
workingmen and their families in consequence of the reductions in 
wages which have been noted, but the full force of the existing hard 
times in Great Britain has fallen upon the tens of thousands who 
have been thrown out of all employment and denied any wages. 
Upon this sad story I do not propose to enter further than to show 
that no relief has yet been found for the unemployed, and that the 
struggle for life itself is now very severe. Two recent cable dis- 
patches show how great is the existing distress in one of the lead- 
ing iron and steel manufacturing districts of England. 

London, Nov. 20, 1878. — A state of appalling distress and destitution exists 
among the mechanics and laborers of Sheffield, in consequence of the business 
depression. Hundreds of persons are living in tenements without clothing or 
furniture, which they have been forced to sell to procure food. They are 
without fuel and are dependent upon the charity of their neighbors for sub- 
sistence. The mayor has called a public meeting to devise measures of relief. 

London, Feb. 28, 1879. — The mayor of Sheffield stated at a meeting yes- 
terday that in one district of that town there are 4,000 persons destitute, and 
400 families are actually starving. The relief fund, except about £800, has 
been expended. 

It is announced that, at Chester, in February last, the guardians, 
in order to provide work for the distressed laborers, had given em- 
ployment in stone-breaking, at Is. 6d. a day, to as many as desired 
to apply for it at the workhouse. Relief committees and soup- 
houses are to-day found in most mining and manufacturing dis- 
tricts in England, Scotland, and Wales. The trades unions are 
assisting their unemployed members to emigrate to the United 
States and other countries, and English newspapers urge all the 
unemployed to emigrate if they can find the necessary means. It 
is mentioned, however, that " wholesale emigration has but par- 
tially mitigated the distress in the Cornish tin-mining industry, 
thousands of penniless women and children being left behind. 
Hundreds of men unable to emigrate are absolutely without em- 
ployment. The distress has now exceeded the bounds of private 
liberality." The distress in England is said to be more general 
and pitiful than that which accompanied the " cotton famine " in 
1862. 

In all European countries women are engaged in many masculine 
employments, and children in employments to which they are un- 
suited. Of 5,887 persons employed in the iron mines of Sweden 



AMERICAN COMPETITION IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 105 



in 1876, there were 421 women and girls. At Creusot and other 
French iron works women perform a large part of the labor about 
blast furnaces and above ground at the coal mines. All the work 
at the coal washers is done by them, and they are also employed in 
wheeling coal. French women work in the fields, performing the 
labor of men, and in some of the cities of France they may be seen 
cleaning the streets, digging cellars, and doing other work which in 
our country is only performed by men. Women and children, both 
boys and girls, work about Belgian blast furnaces, wheeling coal 
and ore, and also work in the coal mines. The government recently 
refused to exclude women and girls from the mines, but fixed the 
minimum age of boys working in the mines at 12 and that of girls 
at 13 years. In Italy, Austria, and Germany women work as regu- 
larly in the fields as do the men. In Wales they engage in many 
laborious out-door employments. In England thousands of young 
girls are still employed in carrying clay in the brick-yards. The 
poverty of the working people of Europe, especially since the reac- 
tion in prices and wages a few years ago, is doubtless the principal 
reason why women and children help to do the work of men, the 
earnings of all the members of the family who can work being ne- 
cessary to keep the wolf from the door. It will readily be inferred 
that the food, and clothing, and household comforts of the family 
of a European workingman are not such as the families of our 
well-to-do American mechanics and farmers are accustomed to. A 
condition of society which requires such sacrifices and imposes such 
privations is not desirable in this country. 

AMERICAN COMPETITION IN FOREIGN IRON AND STEEL MARKETS. 

A study of the present condition of the iron and steel industries 
of Europe and of the condition of European labor naturally leads 
to the inquiry whether the iron and steel manufacturers of the 
United States can compete in foreign markets with industries so 
depressed and with labor so poorly rewarded, and to the further 
inquiry whether they could hold possession of the home market if 
the protection now afforded by duties on imports were withdrawn. 
It is clear to me that if the crude and coarse forms of iron and 
steel be considered, such as pig iron, bars, rails, plates, sheets, and 
beams, neither of these inquiries can be answered in the affirmative. 

It is well known to every well-informed person that the prices of 
iron and steel in this country never were so low as they are to-day, 



106 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



and that these low prices are the result of the severest home com- 
petition which has ever been experienced. In the struggle for the 
possession of the home market which the financial panic of 1873 
precipitated and entailed upon our iron and steel manufacturers 
they have made use of every resource that science, and skill, and 
economy could suggest as a cheapening influence. Improvements 
in machinery and in processes have been made at great expense ; 
old methods of manufacture have been modified or discarded ; 
search has been made for better and cheaper raw materials ; wages 
and profits have been reduced. Many manufacturers have resorted 
to all the expedients here named, by which they hoped to keep their 
establishments in operation, and yet have been unable to maintain 
their hold on the market, and with the failure to do this have 
retired from business or been forced into bankruptcy. With the 
knowledge of this severe competition and its effects before us it is 
not a reasonable supposition that prices can go much, if any, lower 
than they now are. And yet there are many countries in Europe 
in which both iron and steel are made much more cheaply than in 
the United States. Competition in these countries has been as 
severe as in this country; bankruptcy has followed bankruptcy; 
wages, always lower than in the United States, have been reduced 
and reduced again. Special natural advantages, joined to low 
wages, have combined with a slackening demand to bring the prices 
of iron and steel in Europe down to a level which has never before 
been reached. 

Among the natural manufacturing advantages referred to cheap 
transportation is most prominent. In the United States our best 
ores are found at long distances from the fuel that is needed to 
smelt them ; much of the pig iron manufactured is necessarily made 
at long distances from the works which refine it into finished iron 
and steel; and even the finished product is usually transported 
hundreds of miles before it reaches the consumer. In Europe the 
ores and fuel are usually found in proximity to each other and to 
finished iron and steel works, or can be cheaply transported. The 
territorial extent of the leading manufacturing countries of Europe 
is small indeed when compared with the wide extent of our own 
country, and the mineralogical riches of Europe are distributed 
with remarkable evenness. Hence railroad transportation is not 
there the tax that it is in this country, and canal and ocean trans- 
portation still more cheaply serve the European manufacturer by 
bringing to him raw materials or taking his finished product to a 



AMERICAN COMPETITION IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 107 



market. Great Britain alone has over 4,000 miles of canal, and 
her facilities for receiving and shipping raw materials and manu- 
factured products by sea are unequaled. 

My distinguished friend, Mr. I. Lowthian Bell, M. P., in his re- 
port to his government on the iron and steel resources of the United 
States, as represented at the Philadelphia Exhibition, saw and 
recognized the influence of long lines of transportation in adding to 
the cost of American iron and steel products. He said : 

The vast extent of the territory of the United States renders that possible 
which in Great Britain is physically impossible; thus it may and it does 
happen that in the former distances of nearly 1,000 miles may intervene be- 
tween the ore and the coal, whereas with ourselves it is difficult to find a situ- 
ation in which the two are separated by even 100 miles. 

This is a frank statement of facts, but I may add to it another 
important fact, which the books of leading manufacturing com- 
panies will verify, that fully one-third of the cost of all the finished 
iron and steel that are made in the United States is created by un- 
avoidable railroad transportation. If it were possible to make iron 
and steel in this country without paying this tax to the railroads, 
there are few railroads that would pay a dividend to their stock- 
holders, and the building of new railroads would practically cease, 
for all our leading railroad companies derive a large part of their 
revenue from the transportation of the ore, coal, coke, limestone, pig 
iron, and finished iron and steel used at or produced by our iron 
and steel works. With the cost of transportation reduced fifty per 
cent., and the price of labor reduced to the European standard, 
this country could make iron and steel as cheaply as Europe, but 
neither result is possible, and neither is desirable. It is not wise 
statesmanship, nor true economy, nor humanity worthy of the 
name that seeks to cheapen any product by making capital a cow- 
ard and labor a slave. But labor in this country can not be made 
the slave that it is in Europe, if legislation would seek to force 
such a result. Its greater intelligence, its political privileges, and 
its wider opportunities forbid the degradation. It would speedily 
reverse at the ballot-box all hostile legislation, and millions of 
fertile and unbroken acres in the West will long afford an outlet 
to surplus labor in our manufacturing districts. 

We will doubtless continue to increase our exports of such 
products as hardware, edge tools, and light specialties, in the pro- 
duction of which American ingenuity has given us an advantage ; 



108 THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



but bulky iron and steel products, which are manufactured with 
materials and by the employment of skill that Europe possesses in 
common with ourselves, we can not export in appreciable quantities, 
even to our nearest neighbors. A reference to the statistics of 
American exports will show that we can not. Our iron and steel 
manufacturers will do well to abandon the hope that such a result 
is possible. The statesmen of the country need not look for these 
manufacturers to swell our foreign commerce with their products. 
The home market is all that they can supply under existing condi- 
tions, and in supplying it with good iron and good steel at the low- 
est prices ever charged to American consumers they will find suffi- 
cient employment for all their energies and perform a service to 
their countrymen far greater than could follow an uncertain strug- 
gle with overcrowded countries for the supply of foreign markets. 

I trust that no man, be he statesman or manufacturer, will be delu- 
ded with the thought that our most formidable manufacturing rival, 
Great Britain, will cease her efforts to regain possession of our home 
markets. Her manufacturers of cotton, woolen, iron, steel, and oth- 
er products are forcing labor to accept as low wages as are paid in 
the poorest country on the Continent of Europe, and with the many 
natural and acquired manufacturing advantages which they possess 
they will in a little while set at defiance the manufacturing advan- 
tages of all other countries. Temporarily under a cloud, because 
of the progress made by other countries in developing their own re- 
sources, or because of their financial inability to continue the large 
orders once given to her manufacturers, Great Britain will make a 
desperate effort to emerge from it by seeking to undersell the whole 
world. Against this fresh assault most Continental countries, and 
some British colonies, will defend themselves with protective tariffs, 
and if this country would not see many of its leading industries 
overthrown it must resolutely adhere to the revenue policy which 
has developed those industries and which is enabling the country 
to-day to enter with hope and confidence upon a new era of pros- 
perity. I would not excite unnecessary fears, but my duty to my 
countrymen would not be performed if I did not warn them of the 
danger which will constantly impend over their industrial welfare 
so long as a powerful rival is able to force its labor to the lowest 
point of human endurance, and untiringly seeks by diplomatic and 
other methods to force the products of that labor upon countries 
which do not want them, and which, like Spain and Turkey, will 
be impoverished if they buy them. 



THE 



IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS 



AT THE 



UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION OF 1878, 
AT PARIS. 



A REPORT TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 

BY 

DANIEL J. MORRELL, 

United States Commissioner to the Universal Exposition of 1878. 



PRINTED BY PERMISSION OF THE SECRETARY. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

THE AMERICAN IRON AND STEEL ASSOCIATION, 

No. 265 South Fourth Street. 

1879. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




003 131 809 9 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




003 131809 9 



